Draw Into and Extension Question

[LaDonna]

Good morning, and thanks ahead of time for helping me to better understand. I am trying to decide if I think DITHOR would be part of our first year using HOD. I have the economy with science add on, as well as the extension pack (by the way, I have two boys oldest 9 in July 4th grd next year and a 6yr old first grader next yr). I have not done any of the lessons with my oldest yet, and I am not sure how long it may take us to go thru the day, especially if I do have my oldest do the extension pack reading. He normally loves reading, but he is a boy still, and I don't want to burn him out either. In regards to DITHOR, is that something that you decide to add to the standard crclm, or will they miss something if they don't do it? Also, in reg. to the extension, it says to have them read on their own, but what if they want you to read with them? Perhaps I should wait until we get our feet at the beginning of next year and then decide? Thanks again for your fedd back

LaDonna

[Tree House Academy]

I went ahead with DITHOR this year for my older who is doing Bigger with Extensions. The DITHOR is totally different, and in my opinion, very necessary. It delves in much deeper to the genres and the comprehension component of literature. It discusses the characters and the Godly traits they do or do not display. It also has you discussing the elements of the story - setting, problem, mood, predicition/inference, cause and effect...and so on. The extension package is only meant to delve deeper into the study of history and historical figures.

Our schedule will be something like this:

~I will read the storytime book aloud per Bigger plans. It tells which Genre and how long to make the book last (i.e. first book is a biography and needs to last 20 days of lessons). All I have to do is take the pg number and divide by 20.

~We will read History/Science togehter and do the activities.

~Then, he will be assigned the History/Science extensions based on the schedule in the back of the the Bigger Manual. Carrie has broken it down into very managable chunks. For instance: Unit 1 he is reading Pedro's Journal for extension. Day 1, he reads pages 1-3, day 2 pages 4-5, day 3 pages 6 and 7, and so on. This is NOT a major reading or time consuming thing!

Finally, he will be doing his reading for DITHOR. You decide which pages he will read and put them on the "Assigned Reading Calendar"...so, again, it is in very managable chunks. He reads what he is assigned to read each day and does the lesson w/mom per the teacher guide instructions. At the end, you do something fun to celebrate the genre and the study you have just done.

So...it really all goes together well, it is all small chunks and managable. The reading is really set and paced by the teacher in DITHOR and with your daily read alouds for story time and the extension package is so small and managable that it is FUN rather than tedious.

Hope this helps!

[my3sons]

I agree with Rebecca - I think DITHOR is different than you'd expect it to be. It manages to be a very deep program, enriched with foundational reading skills, and yet it still manages to light the fire for dc to be incredibly passionate about reading! We've done DITHOR for lots of years now (4, I think), and it has turned our dc into very strong, passionate readers - they simply love books. I'm not sure what core HOD program you are using, but you could start the core HOD program first, and then after a month or so, when you've hit a nice rhythm with it, you could begin DITHOR. There are great book packs suggested, or otherwise you can easily put together your own set. Does that help at all?

Oh, and for the extension, they are meant to be read independently by the child, but you can always read them out loud yourself if you prefer. This will add a bit of time to the day, but once we'd been doing PHFHG for a month or so, we were able to finish it in 4 to 4 1/2 hours, so it's a meaty but also time conscious program - you should have time to read the extensions yourself if you'd enjoy that!

In Christ,
Julie