Reading Brings Rewards!!

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

~ Joseph Addison ~

Cyndee and I both came to the agreement that when summer started and the boys were out of school, that we wanted them to keep their brains working. One study found that when students return to school after a long summer vacation, they've lost one to three months worth of learning (more here).

We also understand that (our) kids work best on a "rewards system", and with their love (borderline infatuation) for basketball, we decided to bring the two together. We eventually came up with the " Summer Bucks Program".

It works like this:

(1) They read.

(2) They get "points" for difficulty of book (determined by mommy), and Jayden gets points for reading out loud. We've also thrown in points for a book report for Joshua as well.

(3) Based on the number of points, they get either "Lebron Bucks" (for Joshua) or "Jumpman Bucks" (for Jayden).

(4) They accumulate bucks to be able to pick a prize - usually in the form of basketball cards of their favorite players.

So far, it's worked out nicely. They've got their own library cards, and they each probably read close to twenty to twenty five books each (and more on the way). And of course, along the way they've accumulated some "summer bucks" and also have gotten a chance to pick from a bag of basketball cards - handpicked initially by them (but paid for by mom and dad).

Just one fun way we thought of to keep the reading interest and comprehension up during the summer months! If they have "bucks" left at the end of the month, we'll probably reward them with something on a bigger scale for their efforts to read! We are very proud of our "little readers"!!