A part of me has looked on with sorrow at the wonderful book selections in the Heart of Dakota(HOD) catalog. I felt as if we missed so much by not using HOD in earlier years. I took some delight in the fact that I will get to share the books with Megan as she grows and goes through the years. However, I didn't want Laura to miss out entirely.
I've come up with a plan so that she can catch some of them before she moves on to the more difficult selections. First, there is Drawn Into the Heart of Reading (DITHOR). DITHOR is the reading program published by HOD. Since DITHOR can be used with any book, I have purchased or plan to purchase some of the wonderful stories we missed to be used. I always pre-read the books my daughters are to read on their own. I have read The Secret School and Baby Island over the last couple weeks, plus peeked at Scripture Sleuth. So far, I am totally in love. I'm so excited about Laura getting to read these books! They were so FUN to read! So, with DITHOR, we will get to enjoy some of these wonderful selections.
My second approach is Read Aloud time. We do the storytime plans and the Independent History Study in Preparing Hearts for His Glory. We have gotten to read so many wonderful books as part of this study. I decided to add on an extra read aloud to our day. Laura loves being read to, so this was not something that she would dread. I read in Charlotte Mason style, with short bits scheduled each day. We are loving Ginger Pye right now. By just adding an extra 15 or 20 minutes to our day, Laura and I are getting to share some wonderful books together.
My next plan of action is to use some of the books as part of a summer reading program. For the last few years I have had Laura use the Accelerated Reader program at the local library for her Summer Reading program. As she has gotten older, however, I wasn't always happy with the selections that she brought home. They may have been in her reading level, but as I read through the books I was unhappy about some of the content. There were some wonderful books, but there were also ones that I wasn't comfortable with my daughter reading. So, I would rather pick books from a source I know values wholesome, quality literature such as HOD. Plus, wanting to follow the plan of mixing in lots of different genres, I know that the selections from HOD are entertaining and interesting.
We will never read all the wonderful books listed in the catalog. There are so many choices for nearly every guide that I don't know how we would ever find the time to read them all. With separate options available like Classic, Boy, and Girl packages plus Extension packages books, I have to pick and choose what I think would most interest my daughter. I've gotten her involved too, giving her choices and letting her pick what book she would like out of the next genre we want to cover.
You would think, with all this reading, that she would not read much in her own time. However, she went to the library just yesterday and picked up a Dear, America book. (She loves that series!) So, all this reading has not been too much. Short readings from multiple books at one time seems to be working well for us.
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