Fight the mushy vacation brain - READ!!

On the last day of school, my daughter's first grade teacher asked all of her students to make sure they don't get "vacation mushy brain".  Summer vacation is great as it let's kids play and be outdoors more, have more unstructured time to be creative and also just relax.  However, too much play and no work over the next almost 3 months of vacation makes it tough to get back up to speed when the school year starts up again - vacation mushy brain. 

She gave the students a packet of book report sheets.  The assignment is to read at least 10 books and answer questions on at least 5 of them.  The kids need to turn in their packets when school starts up again in August and then the teacher is going to have a pizza party for all the kids who participated.  What a great idea!

From the time they were newborns, we have read to our kids.  It's true in the beginning they didn't pay much attention but we kept with it, and have been reading bedtime stories every night for the past 7 years.  The great thing is that now our kids read to each other. Even our 5 year old (who isn't starting Kindergarten til the fall but is already reading) loves to snuggle up with her little brother and read to him.  My 7 year old goes through chapter books faster than I can bring them home.  Thank goodness for the library and the $1 section at Target. I just got her 3 books from Target this morning.  She started Little Women around 1, I bet she'll be done before her brother wakes up from his nap. 

This summer we are participating in multiple reading clubs.  The library has one for all ages.  Even an adult one (yes I enrolled).  The kids mark off every 20 minutes they read and for every 100 minutes they get prizes (usually coupons for free stuff from local businesses), and raffle tickets towards bigger prizes.  For the grown up one, if I read 4 books in the next 6 weeks, I'll get some local coupons as well as raffles towards theatre tickets, gift cards for restaurants etc.

There is also the Borders reading club aka the Double Dog Dare Challenge, where if they read 10 books, kids 12 and under get to pick a free book (from a pre-selected bunch).  It started June 1st and my oldest has already completed that one. We haven't had a chance to pick out the free book yet so I don't what they are, but last year I think she got a Beverly Cleary book, and there were other good options.

http://www.borders.com/online/store/MediaView_double-dog-dare?cmpid=SA_20110616_4


Then this morning I read about the Children's Book Club of the Month Summer Reading Series on Sassy Moms in the City.  They are holding a contest where the prize is as follows:

One lucky winner will win over $750 worth of prizing:

• Beach Reading selections for mom ($150 value)
• $100 restaurant.com gift certificate
• 25 assorted children’s books for the children in your life ($450 value)
• $50 package of selected books for your child
  (All books included in this prize package will be selected by CBOMC) 

How awesome is that?  We're planning a road trip this summer for about a week (but about 30 hours of driving split among that time).  It would be great to have a whole bunch of new books to take with us on that trip.  My favorite part is that they included "Beach Reading selections for mom".  It can't all be about the kids right?



http://bit.ly/MySummerReading

There are a few different ways to enter, either blog posts, Tweeting, or Facebook.  Check out the link above for all the details.  

Happy reading!!