1000 Books?

OK, here it is... The Kesler Family 1000 Book Challenge!!

As a family we read a lot. So, there isn't really a need to encourage reading or literacy around here. However, I wanted to come up with something to reward the kids for the great job they are already doing and reinforce something we think is invaluable...reading. So I came up with the idea for the Kesler Family 1000 Book Challenge.

The idea is simple, we will log each book read by every family member and celebrate at 100 book intervals until we reach 1000. When we reach 1000 books we will do something extra special as a family! This is not about getting bogged down in a bunch of rules (as I explained to my oldest son), but about having fun! We will count any book, read by anyone or to anyone in the family, including books on tape we listen to in the car. The books can be read more than once(we do have 4 & 3 year olds in the house!), and toddler board books also count. I used an old, half used notebook to make a log, and included date, title of book, read by, and audience columns. Yesterday was our first day logging books, and we wrote down ten books, which is less than usual, maybe because we didn't read to the little ones before bed last night! I expect this to take a little while, but that is OK. I also want to have the family vote on the reward at the end. We aren't in a rush, so we have time to come up with something fun!!

Another thing our family has done, but we are out of the habit lately, is that the older kids each read a book to their younger buddy every day. We learned about the buddy system from the Duggars on TV. We use it loosely, but it has been a great help! So, we are back in the "read to your buddy" mode, which has been great for providing one more way to build a close relationship between siblings!