DITHR questions..

This is where new posts begin. All questions or discussions about any of Heart of Dakota's curriculums start here. If you wish to share a one-time post about your family's experience with our curriculum, you may post under the specific curriculum title (found beneath this "Main Board" heading).
Post Reply
Vicki
Posts: 179
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:14 pm
Location: MS

DITHR questions..

Post by Vicki » Tue Mar 03, 2009 3:09 pm

I have a few questions about Drawn into the Heart of Reading.

Do I understand from the manual that for a level 2/3 child, he should be doing all of the reading out loud to me? Also, if he reads a book in 5 days, we do two more through every genre, and again, he reads these out loud to me? I am wondering how it works out for the review questions, as my little guy may not remember in full the first book he read, and would probably want to do a project on the last book of the three every time.

Also, if I already have the Book Projects book for 3rd grade, would it be fine to use in place of the one for level 2/3? I don't know without looking how much different the projects are between the two levels.

One more question... Should he read on his own during his free time if he's doing all of it out loud to me during DITHR time? I do lay books out around the house for him to pick up, and he usually chooses to sit down and read through these. This seems to have been a natural way to encourage him to read without having to nag him about it. I do want him to continue to have a natural love for reading, and I'm a bit worried that if I require him to read everything out loud to me for DITHR, he may come to resent his own enjoyment of books. Does that make sense?

Thanks for any help with this, as I'm just now trying to implement this in our school day.
Moving along at our own pace, and very happy with it!

my3sons
Posts: 10698
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:08 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: DITHR questions..

Post by my3sons » Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:20 pm

I think the key is not to assign a ton of reading each day. For those little ones, the idea is to focus on building their comprehension. We often just did 1-2 books each genre, unless they were pretty short. It is important to read out loud so we can see where they are making mistakes and help them bridge that gap between phonics and chapter books.

Whatever book he chooses for his end of the genre project will work just fine - even if it happens to be the last book he read each time. :D I bet he'll eventually pick his favorite though, as his comprehension improves. It helps if I set out the books he read, so he can see them and remember them well, and then let him choose. Also, only one of the projects is based on the book - the other 2 are either on the Godly character trait or an active type project (i.e. for the genre Biography, interview Papa - one of our favorites! :D ) So, it's not so much review of the book, as review of the skills that have been learned, and a celebration of completing the genre.

You should be just fine using the Level 3 of Book Projects. If a project seems to hard, you can steer him toward one of the other end of the genre project choices. :)

I've always loved free time reading for our dc, and what a great idea to just leave books out for him - to tempt him into reading more throughout the day! :D We started an independent reading shelf for each of our boys, stocked with books they can read whenever just for fun. I make a check-off sheet of the books, and when they finish one, they check it off. When they finish all of them, they give the sheet and I put new books on their shelf with a new check-off. I started with just a few books for the younger ds, so he could feel success at reading and completing the list right away. Then, I added more each time. They love to check off their list and pick from their shelf, and I love that they're reading a lot on their own for fun.

In Christ,
Julie :D
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

Vicki
Posts: 179
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:14 pm
Location: MS

Re: DITHR questions..

Post by Vicki » Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:19 pm

Thank you, Julie, for your great explanation of how to use DITHR! I want to sit down with the manual again this weekend and get comfortable with it, then plan on starting it next week. I guess we could just jump in, but I don't want to mess anything up. I thought it would help to read the directions again. :lol:
Moving along at our own pace, and very happy with it!

Kathleen
Posts: 1980
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:23 pm
Location: NE Kansas

Re: DITHR questions..

Post by Kathleen » Tue Mar 03, 2009 11:03 pm

Vicki,

I just wanted to add that this is our 1st year with DITHOR. It is so well done, and we're having a blast! :D I don't think you'll have a hard time having your ds enjoy it. :wink: I went with HOD's book pack, and we usually read 1 or 2 books per genre. (It tells me which one is for 5 days and which for 10 days.) The reading assignments are pretty short. My son has improved so much on reading with expression. It's been fun to watch him grow with this! There are some days of the level 2/3 plans that tell you to have your child read the assigned pages on his own, but most days you'll be listening. Now that we're this far through the year, if we're tight on time, I'll occasionally have him read the pages on his own and then just listen to 2 or 3 of them when we do our discussion. But, I would say that it's valuable to listen and have your child read out loud when it says to.

:D Kathleen
Homeschooling mom to 6:
Grant - 19 Kansas State University
Allison - 15 World Geography
Garret - 13 Res2Ref
Asa - 8 Bigger
Quinn - 7 Bigger

Halle - 4 LHTH

Vicki
Posts: 179
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:14 pm
Location: MS

Re: DITHR questions..

Post by Vicki » Wed Mar 04, 2009 8:04 am

Thanks for your help, Kathleen. I am excited to get started with this. I've had the manual for awhile now, I just wasn't sure when to begin, but I think the time is now. I found some empty cosmetic boxes at Walmart, and I'm using them to sort the books by genre in my bookshelf. I write on the front of the box the genre type (it's the kind with the opening, but a straight back so the books fit right in with support at the back--they don't fall through :lol: ). I've got books to sort still, but I have the list from the DITHR selections, and I'm going by that to see if I have any that match up. I'm excited to get started, and I know this will add some excitement to our day!
Moving along at our own pace, and very happy with it!

my3sons
Posts: 10698
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:08 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: DITHR questions..

Post by my3sons » Wed Mar 04, 2009 9:11 am

That sounds like a great way to organize the books, Vicki! I am excited for you to begin DITHR. I think you and your ds will enjoy it. I always reread the intro. to the guides before I'm going to begin again - just to refocus on the purpose at hand, so that is a good idea. Like Kathleen mentioned, when we are short on time, I'll have my ds read some on his own and just part of it to me. That works just fine once they're pretty confident with reading, and doing well. But I agree that it's important at Level 2/3 to pretty much always have them read at least a portion out loud to you. One time my ds was reading the main character's name as "Chili" - it was Chloe. :lol: Anyway, I was glad to correct that before he got too far into it. :D Carrie's son was calling "Elisha" Elsie instead one time as well. :lol: And yes, it was the Elisha from the Bible, so you can imagine how funny Elsie sounded. :lol: Comic relief is not all bad though! :)

In Christ,
Julie :)
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

Post Reply