I'm currently reading The Book Whisperer (which I am reading for my 12 in 2014 and absolutely love) and it has had me thinking of even more ways to encourage Xander to read. Granted, I'm very lucky. He LOVES books. He's the kind of kid who sneaks books into bed to read during nap time. However, it is a behavior I want to continue to encourage and support. Therefore, I decided to do a summer reading chart.
Now my school year starts back up again at the very end of July, so this is really more of a June and July thing, but I called it "summer" reading anyway. I decided not to set a minimum goal for him. I made a 100 table and we're going to see how many we can fill out by the time I go back to work full time. For every book he reads to me or with me (although he rarely reads less than half of whatever book we're reading to me), I'll let him mark a number. He could circle the number, put a sticker there, or use a Do-a-Dot marker. I want him to go in order, so we can see him accumulate books. Since we'll look at the chart daily, it will be a perfect way to reinforce counting by tens, place values, or odd and even numbers (I'm totally a believer in frequent gentle exposure as a fun way for kids to learn something without even trying). If we fill out multiple charts, it will let us talk about how 200 is actually two 100s, etc.
Since we were doing a Frozen theme, I made the chart to go with the theme. You're welcome to print your own copy here.
Xander is pretty excited! We talked about it and decided that if he fills out the whole chart, we'll go back to the Y that has the really nice indoor swim area.
Adding stickers. This is what he wanted to do. Honestly, I'm a little torn on the stickers. On the one hand, small stickers like this is great for his fine motor skills. However, a Do-a-Do marker or coloring would allow us to still see the number.
This is a awesome idea thanks for posting it. I will print out rite away give to my daughter.
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