G is a speed reader and Buddy is an exceptional reader. I've never been much of a reader, although I've always liked it alright. Plus I have some weird thing where my eyes don't track properly so I read really slowly, which is annoying and in the past has been a turnoff to me reading anything long. However, my sister and mom are always telling me about great books and Buddy is so enthusiastic... I decided I needed to rise to the good reading I was always encouraging Buddy to do. In the last couple of years I've been reading as much as possible, but this summer we ramped it up to a whole new level. It was so exciting to talk about our respective books with each other as a family and to choose reading over TV, housework, or even sleep. I hope we've all officially established a life-long habit of reading good books.
Our reward is going to a fun pizza place as a family to eat and play games. That will be scheduled soon. Plus we'll also take the kids to pick out a new book, which is a huge thrill for Buddy.
Unfortunately, I'm the only one that kept track of the books I read. Next year we'll be better about that. Still, we covered a lot of ground between the three of us and can make all sorts of book recommendations now! Here are the dets:
G won (surprise, surprise):
3943 pages read
Completed 10 books with 2 more in progress.
Buddy came in second:
3328 pages read
Completed 17 books with 2 more in progress.
I came in third:
3012 pages read
Completed 9 books with 3 more in progress.
And in case anyone cares, G also won our $20 prize for all three months for our other summer challenge. (He bought Rockband 3, Rockband songs, and a laminator with his prize money.) Him winning really makes me mad, so I'm never doing that contest with him again. Although, I have to say focusing our time and energies this summer on exercise, service, scriptures, learning, reading, and work was a brilliant idea if I do say so myself. It gave purpose to each day and and helped us focus on things that really matter to us as a family. We hope to keep up the good habits we established as we start a new school year, particularly our habit of doing service every day for someone outside our family.
Today the boys and I went to Oaks Park, an amusement park in Portland, to reward Buddy for good behavior, as part of a new discipline program we started. We had such a good time. Both kids are brave and LOVE the exhileration of adrenaline, so they both loved it. The weather was perfect and the kids were having fun, so we stayed all day. Buddy was a little too small to ride all the biggest rides and Sambo was a little too small to ride the big kid rides, but they still had fun. Buddy was still able to ride some of the "intermediate" rides, like the Octopus, that old school ride with the cages, and his favorite, The Eruption. The boys both loved the rollercoaster best. Buddy is counting down the days now until he can he is tall enough to ride everything!
We got our pass to the amusement park for doing the summer reading program through the library. The ride bracelet allowed the boys to rollerskate as well. We only had 20 minutes to rollerskate before it closed, but they both had a lot of fun. True to each boys personalities, Sambo cried and was unwilling to try after he fell down a few minutes into starting. But once he regained his motivation, he did amazing, considering he was the smallest child I saw there. And Buddy struggled to stay up, but never once stopped trying. By the end of the 20 minutes he was dripping with sweat and was so sad the time was up. It was absolutely hilarious watching them. I couldn't stop laughing!
2 comments:
Your reading accomplishments are impressive! Congrats! As I harp continuously: being able to read well is The Most Important skill a child needs to have. Without that ability, they are pretty much doomed to failure and a miserable life with few exceptions. Sounds horrible, but it is reality. Keep reading, Buddy and Sambo!
I love that you had a family reading goal. It's so fun when you motivate each other! Now you need to post the books you all read; I'm always on the lookout for recommendations.
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