Brynna Let’s get those kiddos reading this summer!
Our Reading Challenge is designed to be flexible (for lifestyle and ages), but give children something more than a boring grid to check off while adding variety to their reading. I wanted to make something achievable, with rewards along the way to help maintain motivation, while being adaptable to each of my children’s individual reading levels. With three included pages, you’re getting a customizable challenge, a rewards chart so they know what they’re working toward, and a report page, for a simple yet effective form of accountability.
How we’re making this work in our family:
- For the non-reader, audiobooks, and read-alouds count, but so do her reading lessons. So in her case, if she sits and has an older sibling read to her, that will count for both of them.
- For my early reader, any books from short first-readers to chapter books count. My goal is to get them to look forward to the next book, not to make it feel like a chore.
- For my advanced readers, 30 minutes is a short time, but allows them to squeeze in pockets of reading whereas they might have not fit it in otherwise.
I chose to customize our challenge based on our lifestyle (“Read While Sitting with the Chickens”, “Read to [sibling]”, or “Read a Book About Hawaii” before our upcoming vacation), but the prefilled boxes should be easy for any family to do! My goal is for them to sit and read, not finish a specific number of books, as we have readers at all different levels.
The “Report” sheet is designed to help them recall details of the story they enjoyed, just a quick recap to hold them accountable in their reading and avoid skimming or skipping pages. Because kids are kids, and it’s SUMMER! This should only require a few minutes of time upon the completion of each book and is entirely optional.
I based our rewards on things they ask for but we don’t do frequently, whether it’s because of distance, cost, or time involved. For our challenge, points are stackable. That means they can redeem 10 points for a reward, but once they get 10 more, they’re at the 20-point reward…it doesn’t have to be 20 separate points. And for two of our rewards, I’m allowing them to “combine” points to equal the redemption amount. This is because it’s a family-style event and doesn’t make sense to do it individually. (Nor would it be as fun!)
We have a “Grand Prize” for finishing the entire challenge. Obviously, this is more difficult for the younger ones who aren’t reading independently and rely on a parent, sibling, or audiobooks. That’s where our teamwork will factor in! We’re going to get everybody to their Grand Prize!
Get Your Copy of the 2023 Summer Reading Challenge Printable!
2023 Summer Reading Challenge Rewards
2023 Summer Reading Challenge Report Page
