So the kids have spent most of the weekend reading. Most of it is Book-It! inspired: if you're not familiar, teachers set the bar and if kids reach it every month (for 6 months) they get a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. Now, we're lucky parents because when the kids learned to read, they liked it, and so we've never needed external motivation. They play Book-It! for the pride of doing it. Girly loves it. Takes it seriously, every month. Boy... not so much. I think he doesn't like to be bothered keeping track. (I don't keep track for them. The charts go on the fridge and it's up to them to fill them out.) Anyway, he's decided to make it this month, anyway, just to prove he can. He needs to read 600 minutes in the month of October. This weekend, he's read at least 400. Girly has reached her classroom goal of 300 minutes, but on she reads. I came downstairs this morning to find them next to each other on the couch, reading. No TV even for background noise. Just reading.
I know. We're very lucky parents.
6 comments:
Sounds like a wonderful weekend of reading!
Unfortunately, WL jumped directly from Magic Tree House to Harry Potter--do not pass Hardy Boys, do not collect $200.
And Cheer Chick? Maybe we can hook her up with some Nancy Drew if we're lucky.
Interesting story on NPR the other morning about the brain's (in)ability to multi-task. Also, how multi-tasking is like crack ... it ramps up the seratonin and keeps your brain happy, although it does nothing for your actual productivity level. So, encourage that reading without the TV on -- it's better for them in the long run (says the woman checking her blog, facebook, and email while watching TV, baking banana bread, and reading a book, yes, all at the same time).
My children really enjoyed "Book-It" (yes, they let homeschoolers participate, too ;) - we stopped, but for personal ethical/environmental/financial reasons, and ironically, they continued to read. Their favorite time of year is the summer when they can participate in the Summer Reading Program at our local library.
We are lucky parents, too ;).
I understand the reasons Pizza Hut does this: give away a free $6 pizza but get the whole family in for a meal and have nice happy PR on encouraging kids to read. I personally get annoyed by having to write it all down-- can't we just read as long as we are into it, and be happy with that? Some kids need to run or draw or cook or care for pets or.... and I hate this need of ours to attach a time expectation. It actually defeats the purpose sometimes-- you worry so much about "is it long enough" that you lose the enjoyment of just doing it well. I guess I'm really not a big fan of extrinsic rewards, and I really don't like to be manipulated by Big Business. But I did always like that they included homeschools and private schools... but since their motivation was money, they're not stupid.
Oh, yeah! Pizza Hut scored big with my family. One "free" pizza and we paid for four personal pan pizza dinners, plus five drinks. Yeah, they weren't losing anything by giving us one little pizza (that's the financial reason for discontinuing the program ;).
For us, the reading goal wasn't time related, though. It was by number of books, which was both good and bad. There was still the writing stuff down, but my "participant" started trying to sneak books in there that were just too easy for her. So, instead of reading books for the enjoyment of reading, she was reading to get a free pizza. At first, I just wouldn't give her credit for easy books, but then, I started giving her credit for the book IF she read it aloud to her sisters ;).
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