Our Summer Reading Challenge

Motivating kids to read becomes more difficult as they get older and busier.  Reading, however, is crucial to vocabulary expansion and critical thinking skills.  We don’t do much in the way of formal school activities over the summer months; but, this summer I am giving our kids who are still school age a reading challenge. Our school age kids will be in 12th grade, 10th grade, and 7th grade. When they were younger we participated in our local library’s summer reading program.  It was based on number of books read.  Our challenge is based on number of hours read because the kids are so varied in age.  The time challenge is more fair. I really think this will encourage reading and even some healthy competition between the kids.  This is going to be their educational goal for the summer.  Along with this goal, they will each be setting a spiritual goal and a physical goal.
Here is the reading challenge:
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to read for a minimum of 20 hours between June 15 and August 15.  For every 10 hours completed, you will earn a surprise gift card.  You may read for more than 20 hours.  Your reading time must be documented and/or verified by an adult.  Mom and Dad reserve the right to discuss your reading with you to see if you are actually reading.  You may choose to read books, magazines, the newspaper, the Bible, and other printed material.  E-books are acceptable with permission, but other assorted internet reading does not count toward your time.Good luck and happy reading!!
This is going to be printed and presented to the kids along with a reading log.  I know how competitive my kids are; and, I know how much they love to get gift cards for ITunes, restaurants, the movies, etc… I am praying this will motivate them to read and hopefully will instill a love for reading for fun.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  If you would like a copy of the reading challenge and reading log, please e-mail me at sbdugger@aol.com, with ‘Summer Reading Challenge’ in the subject line.  I look forward to hearing from you!
         My friends on the Schoolhouse Review Crew have been coming up with other fun ideas for summer reading. If you would like to read some of their great blog posts, visit the Blog Cruise page, here, or click on the picture below.