• Teaching Our Children: Spring Into Reading

    Our filled reading tree

    Last year I started a reading tree for the girls in the Spring and we continued to fill it with leaves through the Summer.  I wanted to find a way to encourage the girls to read.  They had blast adding  leaves to the reading tree.  It was a great visual way for them to see how much they were reading.  Each member of the family had a different color leaf to hang up when a book was read.  The girls also did a summer reading program through our local library and one online as well.

    Spring into reading tree full of leaves!

    As the school year ends in a  few weeks and as summer vacation is getting closer it is now time for me to come up with another fun reading activity for the kids.  I have a couple ideas for this summers reading adventure and will be sharing it with you soon.  What ways do you encourage your children to read throughout the summer vacation?

  • Teaching Our Children: Encouraging the Kids to Read During Summer Vacation

    Our reading tree!

    I was trying to come up with a visual prompt in our home that encourages our children to read this summer.  The girls LOVE it when they are read to and could do it for hours but since they are starting to read on their own I wanted to find something that would help motivate them to read a little more.  I came up with the idea “Spring into Reading” since we technically started it in the Spring and I wanted to boost the girls reading skills.

    My Mom graciously made the tree for me and my Sister in Law Becky helped cut out a bunch of the leaves.  The purpose of the tree is simple find a visual way for the girls to see their reading progress.  Each member of our family gets a different color of leaf.  When that member reads a book to the girls or they read a book on their own they get to put up their leaf.

    We have started to fill out our tree with leaves and hope to get an after summer break picture up for you to see what we accomplished.  If all goes well I hope to see more and more of the girls leaves going up throughout the summer as their reading skills increase.