So we signed up for the library summer reading challenge again this year on the 2nd day, and we finished it in less than 90 mins (that time also included walking home from the library and having a snack!). SO we left it a couple of weeks before going back to the library and daring to say that we had finished but when we did the librarian (assuming my eldest daughter was at least 6 because she is so tall) suggested she started the Book Track.
Book Track involves reading 100 books. Any 100 books over any amount of time but every time books are finished and returned to the library the child has to sit and discuss the books they have read with one of the librarians who then logs the books on a card (max of 4 books at a time). At various points they are given badges or stickers (sticker to start, badges at 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 and stickers at something like 40 and 90 – can’t quite remember with the stickers).
26 days after starting it (and we were away for 12 days of that with no library books) daughter number 1 has read and reported on 25 books. She has actually read more but they won’t let her talk to them about her own books, only library ones so she has decided to discontinue it. It seems a shame to me as surely the whole point is to get kids reading. I assumed that as long as they can take the book along and talk about it (and are mostly reading library books) then they should be able to count it in their total. Anyway she has decided that mummy has to create her a book track of her own to do at home.
To try and dissuade her from just reading the shorter books that she finds easy we are going to have to make it more complex (her idea – she knows she will pick easy ones if it means she gets through more of them and gets stickers quicker…). We are currently deciding the tariff. Probably a simple picture book will be 1 point, a longer picture story book will be 2, an early reader 3 and a chapter book 4 or 5 depending on the length of it. At least doing something like this at home means daughter number 2 can’t whine about not being old enough to do the library one and she can join in herself now she is starting to read.
Now I need to work out what they will get as rewards and at what stages. Little certificates are bound to go down well, especially with daughter 2.