Do you wish you could get your kids reading more? The Spring Hill Library might be able to help. They’ve come up with a challenge that will not only get kids reading both fiction and nonfiction books, but will get them up off the couch and moving and doing.
“Everyone is sick of looking at screens and some kids might have gotten behind in their reading skills with all the closures, so we thought we’d come up with a challenge that requires kids to not only learn from books but gets them doing fun things like cooking, looking for animal tracks, and aging their face with make-up,” said Children’s Librarian, Marsha Gallardo.
During the summer reading challenge, which had over 900 registered readers, similar activities were woven in and popular. The library decided to expand on the idea and they created a handbook for each child to keep track of their progress and use it for redeeming rewards. For each accomplishment the reward is to pick out an especially nice sticker – great for putting on a water bottle, lap top, notebook, etc. – and when all are done they will receive a free frozen custard scoop at Culver’s.
The challenge covers nine topics, that include sports, animals, and nature, and will run throughout the school year, from September to May. “We snuck in Dewey Decimal references, hoping that, by the end, kids will have a better feel for where a lot of subjects can be found in the library,” Marsha said. She says the reading challenge is great for all ages, read-to-me’s on up. Adults are welcome to participate as well.
The booklets are available at the Spring Hill Library or printed off from their website: https://www.springhilllibrary.org/287/Children.
