have my mind working. We don't have a B&N so that one is out, Book It doesn't start till fall (we have done Book It a few times now), and we aren't Christian so I'm not sure I want to sign up for the BJU program... though I did print their log. I think I'm going to require 15m from Reagan and 20m from Rylee each day... plus 20m read aloud from me (I'm horrible about reading aloud). Our summer break started Friday and ends the Monday after July 4th. I think if they/we can fill in the charts from BJU I will reward each of them with a goodie bag. I'm thinking I need to work Cameron into this too somehow.. hmmmmmm He will be crushed if they earn prizes and he doesn't. Maybe he needs me to read to him one on one for 15 minutes to fill in his chart? Anyway... what would you put in these goody bags? I'm thinking a book or 2, some stickers, pencils, what else? Rylee said the reward she would most like to win would be American Girl doll stuff (mostly clothes.. which I make) and Reagan asked for a remote control helicopter (ummm no...lol). More (affordable) ideas?
Good idea! We have done this before when we lived in the outskirts of nowhere. Around here it seems like everyone has a gift card available. My kids love to receive cards to Dairy Queen or McD's- and even $5 goes a ways for ice cream treats, etc. Our local bookstore carries them- maybe they could pick out their own book or music or movie? The little ice cream place down the road has little paper booklets with coupons for a cone or small sundae. How about a family trip to the swimming pool or skating rink if they all meet their goals? Or a movie night at home- pick out a movie or two, pop some popcorn, let the kids get in their jammies and just enjoy! As far as actual things in a goodie bag.... a small book or two, a coloring book and new crayons, a sketch book and colored pencils (if older), some new stickers, play dough, new flashcards, bouncy balls, those silly wrist band thingys, small toy cars... the kids will love any of that. Do you have a craft store nearby that might have those little craft kits for kids? Oriental trading carries craft kits for kids too. Sorry that was lengthy! Speaking of stickers- you can use them on your reading chart, or after 5 days of reading, etc. I love reading logs to show a child how much they are actually reading. MT3
We can't do any of the reading programs mentioned either. Does your local library have anything like it going on in the summer? Each summer our little library has a summer program, which lasts about 4 or 5 weeks. Each Wednesday there is some kind of presentation....a magic show, farm animals, etc. But they also have the summer reading program, which goes through the end of August. You get slips of paper from the library with some kind of picture on them (last summer it was little airplanes for their theme of "take off into reading" or some such thing). So there would be like 5airplanes on it. For each 20 minutes of reading a day they color in an airplane. They bring in the completed slip at the end of the week and get a coupon for the local Holiday gas station where they can pick out any personal size Hot Stuff pizza. My dd loved this. She got a pizza for lunch every Friday all summer long. Maybe you could do something like that....like was mentioned already, for a cone or something. ETA: I just looked at the BJU one...I think we will do it.
I hardly ever visit our crappy little library. Most of the books in there are from the early 1900s... no I'm not kidding..lol their kid section is slightly better but still really sucks. Out of every 100 books I search their catalog for, they may have 1 or 2. Nope not kidding there either. Out of all the Let's Read and Find Out science books they have 3! Yep, it's that bad..lol I told the kids what we are going to be doing. I told them that if they get their own charts filled out they will each get a goodie bag. If we get our 20 minutes of family read alouds done we will go to the bowling alley. I do like the idea of them getting something each week.... hmmmm what could that be? I just wish I knew what the reward was for the BJU program. Most things I would be fine with... but getting something like a little Bible for us would be a waste for them, and things like that make me feel guilty.
Bowling is a fun idea! Yeah, I don't know what the prize will be either for the BJU thing. I wonder if anyone here has done it before and could tell us what they got. The one big prize is a kindle fire. I won't even tell my daughter about that or she'll go bonkers. She wants one of those so bad...after a friend of mine let her play with her kindle fire. When we left the second we walked out the door my dd said, "This was the best day of my life". LOL! I was thinking, "Gosh, kid, you do live quite the sheltered life". :lol: So, yeah, I won't tell her about that because more than likely she won't win it anyway. For a weekly prize I'd pick the ice cream. You want a cone every week this summer anyway, don't you? :lol:
They love to go to the park too... so maybe on non payday weeks that will be the reward, payday weeks we will hit the one little ice cream shop (that we never go to because we can get a box of ice cream at the store for less than 2 cones..lol). Going for cones would be a big reward to them..lol
Yeah, gone are the days when you could get an icecream cone for 75 cents. :cry: Something free (other than the cost of gas), like the park, is a good idea too.
If you're doing weekly rewards, could you buy an assortment pack from Oreiental Trading to split up for prizes?
I decided to make up my own summer reading list, based off some of the 100 best childrens books lists on the web. Many of the books on those lists, I already own, but I did order a few more. Im trying to stick with quality literature with a real story line and then ive been looking up activities to go with each book. im liking what ive got so far
