Reading game

It was a day of errands. On top of the regular Monday errand of grocery shopping, there were also the errands which involved checks written for fantastic sums of money, what with sending in the deposit for P.'s gap year program and the property taxes. I also had to return some library books which were due. While I was in the library, I noticed that they were signing people up for their summer reading game.

Now, I had seen the announcements that the summer reading game was starting, and being a veteran of many reading games, I had kind of decided that we didn't really need more small erasers and fairly inane cards asking children to do things other than read books. In my quick trip through the library, I noticed that this reading game was different from what I had been used to at our old library. It was certainly different enough to jolt me out of my malaise and add another errand, this time involving 10 children.

The thing I like best about this game is that it is straight reading hours for the grade school set. At 300 hours you get a first prize and a chance to enter the grand prize raffle, and at 600 hours you get another prize and another chance at the grand prize. For the teens, it is number of books, and every two books you get another chance at the grand prize drawing.

Now, I am not above a bit of well-place bribery, and in the back of my head was already planning out my own summer reading bribery package. I have 9 children who can read independently, but the majority hadn't yet developed the habit of sitting down and reading, and thus discovering the joy of getting lost in a story you were reading to yourself. Most of them were more than happy to get lost in a good story that someone else was reading to them. Frankly, J. and I just don't have time and breath to fill the need for story for some of these people. They really need to figure out how to do that for themselves. All of them are good enough readers now to do that, they just haven't realized it yet.

That is why this game is so perfect for them. They have all read more today independently since getting home from the library than they usually do in a week.

I think this is going to work for the older people, too. For the two who already read a lot, they will earn lots of chances to win the $100 gift certificates that are being raffled. For another, the lure of that gift certificate will probably be... um... motivating.

And, you want to hear the best part? They have an adult version, too, where chances at a whole list of prices can be earned for every two books. Just two! Now, I admit to having read quite a bit of fluff recently, but I'm currently averaging eight books a month. I plan on earning quite a few raffle tickets. Not that I'm competitive or anything.

In the meantime, I'm just really happy to see this going on all over the house.






I'll also add that the swag given out for signing up is a step up from what we're used to. For instance, by the time I add all the sheets together, we have coupons for 44 free Kane County Cougar tickets. Anyone want to join us to see a baseball game?

Comments

Diana said…
My library has an adult summer reading program too! Each book read gets one entry into a weekly drawing for a gift card. I generally win one a summer. :)
Kari said…
When we lived in a little town Michigan, the prizes were actual books. After a certain number of books read, the child could pick from the special book cart. It was fantastic - many favorite books were scored that summer!
Kari
grtlyblesd said…
I signed us up for summer reading, too. We get a tote bag and a free book.

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