Design Your Own At-Home Summer Reading Program

Every summer we partake in the summer reading program at our library.  It is pretty amazing if you ask me for a teeny tiny library in a teeny tiny town.  Our Children's Librarian does an incredible job year round but she really outdoes herself with the summer program.  In the 5 years we have been attending we have seen animals including sloths, penguins, and spotted clouded leopards brought from the semi-local zoo.  There have been reptile experts and 15 foot pythons, a children's theater troop, magicians, comedians, and it is all topped off with a carnival with food, games, and inflatables at the end of the program.  Who could ask for more??

Apparently us.  LOL.. When we first started going to the summer reading program we were in the toddler and preschool program and they had some really great incentives to get the kids to read.  T-shirts and some really amazing prizes at the end of the summer party.  As the kids have grown and there are more kids coming to the programs, the prizes have gotten smaller and less exciting. Now, don't get me wrong, my kids LOVE to read just for the sake of reading and I love that more and more children are attending, however those prizes at the end of the summer were a huge draw for them and they really enjoyed trying to be a "top reader" to earn one.  Since we still want to enjoy the local summer reading program but they also want bigger incentives, I decided that this would be a great year to implement our own at-home Summer Reading Program.

Here is how I did it:

1) Plan how you want to structure your program.  Prizes or not? Set number of books or by minutes? Dates you want to run the program.

We chose to start June 5 and end on August 18, the day before we leave for vacation.

We will be doing prizes (more on that in a minute) and I am doing increasing value prizes that they earn by reading 20 minutes a day.  On the 10th day of this, they will earn a prize that get more enticing as the weeks go on.

2) Choose your prizes if you are going that route

Your prizes do not have to cost money to be exciting! Ours are a mixture of monetary and free prizes.  These are the ones we chose though I have not chosen their order just yet:

A) Pick what we are having for dinner from the menu

B) Pick the restaurant when we eat out.  We eat out twice a month so this one is exciting for them!

C) Trip to get frozen yogurt

D) $5 to spend at 5 Below

E) $2 or less iTunes download

F) Get out of chores free

G) Unlimited iPad time for the day

H) New Book


3) Determine how many minutes or books you want them to read before each incentive is earned.

For us it will be after every tenth 20 minute reading session.

Additionally, I am doing a larger incentive where if they read 100 books this summer they will earn a larger prize to be valued around $20.  That may be a new video game, or toy, or whatever they choose that is reasonable in that price range.  They will choose before we start so they have something to work toward.  Since I don't want to discourage chapter book reading for the sake of hitting 100 books, for each 30 pages in a chapter book they will be able to mark off one book read.

4) Have a way to track it all! 

I made a couple of charts that I will link to below that are free for you to use if you'd like!

CLICK HERE TO GET THE CHARTS

That's all you really need to get your own summer reading program up and running!

Maddi

Maddi is my feisty, curly haired up and coming 2nd grader.  She will be 7 this summer and is anxiously counting down the days until she is only one year younger than her brother again.

This kid loves to make friends and finds one everywhere we go.

We were at a birthday party 5 whole minutes before she had a new friend

She loves animals like crazy and is insistent that she wants to be a veterinarian someday. 

Her very, very favorite place in the world is on horseback and she would ride all day if she could.

She loves hiking, camping, kayaking.

She enjoys riding her 4wheeler but admittedly isn't as "into it" as her brother. Her bike is a different story, though.  She loves riding her bike!

Baking, cooking, and working out with me and having "girl's days" are at the top of her favorites list as well. 

She is taking swimming lessons (and has come SO far this year!) and is also coming up on beginning swim team this fall.  She is asking about playing softball this fall so we will see where that goes! I think she will really enjoy it.

Maddi is my little reader.  She always has a book in her hand and she loves to go to the library.  She is definitely mine!! This kiddo keeps me on my toes!

Wyatt

This is my wild and crazy upcoming 4th grader, Wyatt.  He just turned 8 years old and is a rowdy, rambunctious kiddo who loves all things outdoors.  He loves to hunt and fish, loves shooting sports like clay pigeon shooting and practicing with his compound bow.

Doing some skeet shooting on our land

  He lives for hiking, camping, and kayaking.

His first solo fire using flint and a tinder bundle

Some hiking at a local lake

  He would live on his 4wheeler if he could. 

 He loves to swim and takes weekly swim lessons with the possibility of starting swim team in the near future.

 He is in his 4th year of baseball and is currently having an amazing season.

First game of the season

 He also likes video games and minecraft for when he is stuck inside for some reason or another. 

This kid keeps me hopping in the homeschool arena.  He is so quick to pick up on new topics and seems to intuitively understand things that I am not expecting him to.  I am anxious to see where his life takes him!

Welcome to Homeschool on the Hilltop

Hello!! Welcome to my little corner of the internet world.  I have been wanting to get a homeschooling blog up for a couple of years now and I figured that now is the time! 

So, let me introduce myself.  Hi!!  I'm Cassie!

 I am a mom of two awesome kids, wife, runner, and wannabe homesteader.  We are in our 4th year of homeschooling since I decided to not pursue finding a job as a teacher in a public school and stay home with my kiddos instead. We are secular homeschoolers which can be interesting since we are the minority of the minority.  Especially in our teeny tiny area, I have met multiple homeschoolers but only ONE other secular family! The Husband and I are currently in the process of adding quite a chunk of land to our little hilltop home and are hoping to expand our homesteading endeavors along with that purchase.  We already have plans to bring horses and chickens back to the property as well as getting a sizable garden up and running.  On top of that we have talked about adding a couple of meat cows, some rabbits, turkeys, and probably some goats.  I am so excited for the prospects of this piece of land that we have happened upon!

My two kiddos are Wyatt and Maddi.   I plan to do a post introducing each of them on their own for my reference in the future.  They are just growing so stinking fast!!

I can't wait to write more about what our family is doing and bring you all along with us as we develop our new land into something pretty amazing (or at least I hope it is!)