Summer Reading Goals

At our house Summer Break starts tomorrow at Noon! Wah-hoooo!

Tomorrow will also mark the beginning of our Family Summer Reading Goals. 

Each summer we, the parents, set page reading goals for each child--a.k.a. they each have different numbers of pages based on they're reading level. 

 Then the kids help us choose 2 milestone prizes: the 1st prize is earned when they've read about 5/8th of their pages and the 2nd prize when they have met their page goal. 

 Why 5/8ths? The kids find it easier to read for the first prize than to keep going toward the second, so these proportions help them push through to the end.

Prizes are usually family activities, that we don't do very often,  and therefore fall into the splurge catagory for us.  

Examples: 

Go see the New Pixar movie at the theater

Weekend of camping

Afternoon at Inceedible Pizza

Bowling

Skating

Mini-golf

Whatever the prize, it works best if its something a little out of the norm, and something you won't be doing over the summer unless the kids have earned it.

Hint: to help figure out how many pages a child's goal should be--1st figure out how many pages of a level appropriate book the child can read in about 45 minutes.  Then multiply that by the number of days in your summer.  We sometimes allow our older reader to count picture books read to his siblings, but most of his pages need to come from his books.

Go to the Library often to get new books.

Plus the Library probably offers a Summer Reading program too.  Look into it.