joyfulhomeschooler Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Just wondering how this works. Is the child supposed to read the required book for DITHOR and the exension book at the same time? Are the extensions meant for read alouds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyofsixreboot Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Extensions are to stretch an older child if you are combining. They are to be read by the child, If you use DITHOR the child would also be reading that genre book along with the extension book. Many people play with this, use extensions as read alouds, etc. I don't use DITHOR but my 5th grader does use the extensions for Bigger. The book choices have been good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 That seems like a lot of reading for a 4th grader. Reading two chapter books??? Is there a schedule for how much they are supposed to read? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Curious howothers do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 I'm not sure which program you are considering for your kids. Right now, I have my fourth grader in Preparing Little Hearts For His Glory. We are not doing the extensions - he's 10 and I felt the program as written was sufficient for my goals for him this year. So, he has a DITHOR book that he reads (usually spread over 15 days depending on the book) and activities that relate to that. This book he reads by himself. If he was older, and I had determined that he needed the extra challenge, I would purchase the extension books for him and he would also be reading them according to the schedule provided. There are also suggested activities pertaining to these books (mainly oral narrations and written narrations). Right now in Preparing, he is reading the DITHOR book, together we read his history assignment and a read-aloud book. Independently, he is reading a different book for the Independent History Box and he is also reading a Science book independently. Preparing is a very full program so if that is the one you are considering, I would think that your 8yo would not need the extensions. I just realized you may be considering Bigger Hearts, which I am currently in the middle of with my 8yo. Bigger is a much lighter workload than preparing and I could probably have easily added the extensions for my ds. In that case, this son would be reading a DITHOR book by himself and doing the extension books by himself. My son is able to do most of the science box by himself but everything else I read/do with him. There is not as much independent work in Bigger. Everything is scheduled out so that the child is reading short chunks per day. It usually takes my fourth grader about 15 minutes to read his DITHOR assigned pages (there's only been one book that took him a bit longer and he's a slow reader). I'm glad you asked this question, because I may actually add in the extensions for my 8yo in Bigger for the rest of the year :) I had forgotten about them . . . hmmm . . . he's been flying through his work lately so maybe he's up for a challenge. If you have any more specific questions, just let me know . . . I have the first six HOD levels sitting on my shelves so I should be able to help a bit . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 I'm not sure which program you are considering for your kids. Right now, I have my fourth grader in Preparing Little Hearts For His Glory. We are not doing the extensions - he's 10 and I felt the program as written was sufficient for my goals for him this year. So, he has a DITHOR book that he reads (usually spread over 15 days depending on the book) and activities that relate to that. This book he reads by himself. If he was older, and I had determined that he needed the extra challenge, I would purchase the extension books for him and he would also be reading them according to the schedule provided. There are also suggested activities pertaining to these books (mainly oral narrations and written narrations). Right now in Preparing, he is reading the DITHOR book, together we read his history assignment and a read-aloud book. Independently, he is reading a different book for the Independent History Box and he is also reading a Science book independently. Preparing is a very full program so if that is the one you are considering, I would think that your 8yo would not need the extensions. I just realized you may be considering Bigger Hearts, which I am currently in the middle of with my 8yo. Bigger is a much lighter workload than preparing and I could probably have easily added the extensions for my ds. In that case, this son would be reading a DITHOR book by himself and doing the extension books by himself. My son is able to do most of the science box by himself but everything else I read/do with him. There is not as much independent work in Bigger. Everything is scheduled out so that the child is reading short chunks per day. It usually takes my fourth grader about 15 minutes to read his DITHOR assigned pages (there's only been one book that took him a bit longer and he's a slow reader). I'm glad you asked this question, because I may actually add in the extensions for my 8yo in Bigger for the rest of the year :) I had forgotten about them . . . hmmm . . . he's been flying through his work lately so maybe he's up for a challenge. If you have any more specific questions, just let me know . . . I have the first six HOD levels sitting on my shelves so I should be able to help a bit . . . This was a great help. Thanks! I didn't realize the reading was in little chunks. I was thinking it would take 30 min for the DITHOR book and then 30 for the extension book. Would you schedule the DITHOR book and extension book for different times? We are most likely going to be doing bigger since my 7yr old will be joining us in most things. I did get preparing just in case though. I want to make sure the 9yr old will be challenged enough. So ideally we will do bigger with a 7 & 9yr old and add the extensions for the 9yr old. I can't wait to get the guides so I will have a better idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 This was a great help. Thanks! I didn't realize the reading was in little chunks. I was thinking it would take 30 min for the DITHOR book and then 30 for the extension book. Would you schedule the DITHOR book and extension book for different times? We are most likely going to be doing bigger since my 7yr old will be joining us in most things. I did get preparing just in case though. I want to make sure the 9yr old will be challenged enough. So ideally we will do bigger with a 7 & 9yr old and add the extensions for the 9yr old. I can't wait to get the guides so I will have a better idea. I don't have a set schedule for my kids. I tore my HOD manuals apart, three-holed punched them and put them all in page protectors. Each kid has a small notebook that holds about six weeks of HOD page schedules and as they complete the boxes they put a sticker on the page protector to show that it's done. Some days they may do their reading all at one time and somedays it gets divided up. I guess, ideally, I prefer for them to divide it up especially right now in Preparing our story time book and his independent book seem to be quite similar in some way, but somedays it doesn't work to separate the "similar" subjects. I make more of an attempt to divide up the writing so that they are sitting and writing for a long time so spreading out the reading helps to accomplish this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.