help with beyond

[tracyd53]

my daughter will complete LHFHG and start beyond in the fall. she will be seven and is a pretty great reader. i am stuck trying to decide between the emerging readers set and drawn into the heart of reading. any insight would be helpful.

[StephanieU]

I would go with the emerging readers! DITHOR starts at a 3rd grade reading level for the books, and Level 2 includes some 4th grade level books. Also, the workbook is a lot for a 2nd grader! We are just going to read most of the Level 2 books this year because I don't think my daughter is ready for all of DITHOR (and we will be starting Bigger in a few weeks).
The emerging readers start at a very late 1st grade level (mostly the supplemental titles, the actual ER books are 2nd grade and above) and go through 3rd grade. The books after the nature reader are very similar in level to the easier DITHOR Level 2 books actually.

[tracyd53]

thank you!

[gardenmama28]

If I were you I would take a close look at the books listed for the Emerging Readers and the Level 2 book pack. Your child should be able to read the books fluidly, without struggling or stopping to sound things out in order to be placed correctly. So just take a look at the books on the list, and even check a couple out from the library if you don't recognize any titles. Just see which books are a good fit for her and go from there.

I just went through deciding this same thing for my daughter this week. She is finishing Beyond but still not half way through the emerging readers. I decided not to rush her into DITHOR for next year. Instead I am ordering all the supplemental titles from the emerging readers set (these are listed in the back of the Beyond guide). And I will have her work through the Emerging readers and supplemental titles for the next year and a half or however long it takes us before starting DITHOR. From what I read, you do not want to start DITHOR until your child is reading the books in that level fluently enough that she is not stopping to think about what she is reading, and has enough mental space to analyze what she is reading.

[queenireneof3]

My daughter is in Beyond and reading through the Emerging Readers list now. I would not recommend skipping the Emerging leaders list if you are coming straight from LHFHG. I let both of my kids read through the books in the order Carrie has them on the list as quickly as they wanted to as long as they read aloud to me. It is a great way to build up their reading skills before jumping into DITHOR. As my kids both increased in their skill and capacity to read, I got them extra books to read on their own.

[MomtoJGJE]

The Emerging Readers and DITHOR are supposed to be easy for the child to read so they can concentrate on thinking about the book instead of figuring out the words...

[jjn3beans]

These are some great tips! It's nice to see that the emerging reader set flows from late second and progress in difficulty. I have many of these books, so we'll be reading these with my DD this upcoming year.