Summer Reading Scratch-off Boards

Kids love this fun scratch-off game that encourages summer reading!

Every summer I like to do some kind of summer reading incentive at home. We also participate in the library's program, and maybe a bookstore program or two, but the kids always love the one we do at home.

This year I made myself laugh by coming up with a devious plan to ruin their fun. I was going to offer them a dime for every book they read OR they could trade it in for a chance at the "risk board", kind of like that "Let's Make a Deal" game show. The risk board would have some really cool fun stuff on it, but also some chores or punishments. I thought it was a hilarious plan. My 12 year old thought it sounded awful. I decided against it in the long run but instead came up with an idea for a scratch-off board which so far they have loved.


Every time they read a book (or two, depending on how long/hard the books are) they write the title on our summer reading book lists and put the book away. That's an important step or we end up with books all over the house. Then they scratch off a square on our scratch-off boards and get whatever prize they reveal. The prizes I included were 25 cents, 50 cents, a dollar, ice cream (I keep drumsticks ice cream cones in our freezer for this prize), a prize from our prize basket (which contains candy, gum, bubbles, and other small things), or a free media day (where they can play on electronic devices or watch shows as long as they want once their morning work is done).

Here's how to make your own Summer Reading Scratch-Off boards:

Supplies:

foam brushes
dark colored paint
dish soap
laminator, or contact paper, or packing tape
Summer Reading Scratch-Off Boards (I have included the 4 different versions I used for my 4 kids plus a blank one you can fill in with your own prizes.  The kids were pretty disappointed when they learned not all the boards were the same and they couldn't figure out where things were by looking at what their siblings had scratched off. Hahahahaha)

Instructions:

Print out your Scratch-Off Boards onto card stock. Now you need to cover the boxes with something clear and slippery. I first tried just covering the bottom part with Con-tact paper but found it wasn't great. I ended up running the whole page through my laminator (which I love) and it worked great. Plus I can reuse the boards! I've also read that some people just cover the spots with packing tape and that works.

Next mix up your scratch-off paint. You use 2 parts paint and one part dishwashing soap. I did not measure. I just put two dabs of paint on a paper plate and then guestimated a dab of soap that was half that size. It worked. Don't mix them together too vigorously or you will get lots of bubbles.

Then, using your foam brush, paint over your boxes and let them dry. Reapply as many coats as you need in order to hide the prize. If I had thought it through, I would have printed out the prize in lighter color ink instead of black so they were easier to cover up. If you handwrite them in with a pencil that will also be easier to cover. It took 3 coats of the blue and green paints to cover the prize, and about 7 of the pink paint. Seriously. It was painful. Use dark colored paint.

I had taken a penny and scratched around the boxes to make them look nice and neat since I was taking pictures for the blog, but really don't worry too much about staying perfectly in the lines. Kids won't care.

(Also, after I posted this, my sister improved the idea by saying she just uses different colored card stock, handwrites the prizes, and then only needs 1 coat of black paint/soap mixture to cover the prizes!! It makes much more sense this way. She's a genius!)

I hope you enjoyed this idea! I have lots of other summer reading incentive ideas on the blog you might like looking at. And I'd love for you to join my newsletter or follow me on Pinterest. Thanks for stopping by!

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Kindergarten Literacy for Homeschoolers

Many today say that Kindergarten is the new first grade and children are expected to be reading by the end of the year.  This can cause a lot of frustration for kids who are not yet cognitively ready to read.  When you homeschool you are able to teach your child to read at their pace and help them keep the love for reading they started with.  Of course we all want our children to be early readers so they can enjoy reading books on their own, but if you force it on them it's going to backfire on you.  Reading should not be a negative experience for your child.  I've heard you can give your child until the third grade to be reading fluently before you start worrying a bunch.

In this post, I'm going to talk about things you can do to help your child be a successful reader, as well as some resources and lessons to use to help teach your child to read, for kindergarten or any of the early elementary years. Keep it fun and go at your child's pace. If anything is unclear (because sometimes the things I type apparently only make sense in my head) please comment or email me for clarification.  

Whenever you do work at home with your child, remember you are not a taskmaster who's job it is to put your child through drills and make them do tasks.  Your job is to be excited about learning, and share that excitement with your little one.  Instead of taking the attitude of "Go do that now!" you say "Come with me and let's learn together." Lead by example and love.  Having that feeling in your homeschool will make all the difference in how your child approaches learning and responds to you as their teacher.  

Here are some things you can do in your house now to help set your kids up to be successful readers:

Fill Your House With Books

Just as it is hard to learn to waterski in a desert, it's hard to learn to read in a place with no books.  Start your book collection as soon as you can.  I started collecting picture books when I was in college (but I was going to be an elementary teacher, so that's kind of why I started.) New books are expensive, so I suggest going to lots of yard sales.  I have found lots of great books while yard sailing, and sometimes you get lucky and find a retired teacher who is selling her collection.  Also make it a habit to buy (or ask grandparents to buy) at least one book as a present for each birthday/christmas/easter/arbor day etc . . . Also, take lots of trips to the library.  The more books, the better.  

Be An Example

If you want your children to be readers, let them see YOU read! When they see you engrossed in a book, they are going to want to know what the fuss is about and want to read too. I know, for me, it's hard to justify spending time in a chair reading when I have so many other things I need to be doing, but I also know it is so important to show my children that reading is fun and something I want to be doing. 

Read Out Loud 

I think most of us are pretty good about reading books before bedtime or nap time, but you can read any time of the day. I have found meal times to be good read aloud time. When I remember, I read a chapter of a short book or some poems from a collection at lunch. It keeps my boys from fighting and throwing food at each other  too, so that's a bonus.  

Set Aside Quiet Reading Time

Even if your child isn't reading the words, they can still read books by flipping through the pages and looking at pictures.  Set aside 10 min or more a day to just sit and look through books.  Make sure you join in the silent reading time.  

Make Books Together

Kids love to make up stories while they are playing, and it's a lot of fun to write them down. Make them into a book and you will have an excited child.  They will love showing off their book and "reading" it to everyone (even if they are not really saying the words. It's okay for them to just make up the story to go with the pictures you've put in.) We like to print out our books.  Sometimes the kids would illustrate them by hand, and sometimes we would take pictures with our camera to go along with the story. Doing this will help build enthusiasm for books.

And now for some things to more actively help kids learn to read:

Teach Phonics First

Kids need to be aware that letters make sounds and that sounds put together make words. All 4 of my kids have learned their letter sounds by watching the LeapFrog DVD "The Letter Factory". We've also made sticker charts (I love sticker charts) with the letters on them.  When my child could name the letter and it's sound, we'd put a sticker on it. 

Other phonics activities you could do:

Make your own alphabet book using stickers and drawing pictures with one letter on a page.  Laminate them and put them in a binder.  We did this several years ago when Christopher was learning his letters and the older kids helped draw pictures and we made it was a fun group project.  We still like looking through it. 

Choose a letter of the day. Walk around your house pointing out everything you can find that starts with the letter sound. 

Write letters in shaving cream on the table, or in a sand/salt/rice box. The adult writes the letter first, the child traces over it with their finger, and says the letter sound while they do.  You can erase and have them try to write it on their own too. 

Play games such as "ABC Market". There are a lot of alphabet games out there in the internet world. 

Always point out the sounds words start with. When serving lunch or snack say things like "You have a sandwich. What sound does sandwich start with? (say the word slowly) What's that first sound? What letter makes that sound? etc . . ."

Put the Letters Together

Once my kids know their letters and sounds I start to teach them to put them together to make words, if they are ready. My kids have loved watching the LeapFrog "Talking Words Factory" for this. Also, I love the PBS show "Between the Lions", although it's hard to find these days. "Word World" is another favorite reading show.

I have also used, to varying degrees, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". I started this with Maren when she was pretty young because I thought she was smart enough for it. She knew all her letters and sounds and I thought she should be reading, because wasn't it a simple step to go from letter sounds to words? Turns out the answer is no. She was not ready. After about 15 very painful lessons for both of us, we quit. She dreaded our reading lessons and they often ended in tears. I was trying to force her to read (her cousin was reading after all) and it was a learning experience for me. You can't push a child to read, even if you know they are smart enough and know their sounds and you think it should work. After about a YEAR, we came back to it and this time she was ready. I still skipped over parts of the lesson if it was dragging or I could tell it wasn't enjoyable for her, and we never did the writing part at the end. Remember whenever you start one of these programs that it's okay to adapt it to your needs.  You don't have to do everything they tell you to. After we got through about the 50th lesson, things clicked and Maren was off reading and never stopped, so we didn't finish the book. With my 3rd child, however, we went through every single one of those 100 lessons and things still weren't quite clicking. It was a struggle, but not a painful one (he was still enjoying trying to read). Things didn't click for him until much later, but once they did it was amazing to watch him take off.  I tell you this to show that kids really do move at their own pace, even when they have the same instruction and the same learning environment. A lot depends on when the child is ready. Christopher was just ready about 2 years later than Maren was, and that's okay.

There are lots of ways you can spell simple CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) words with your kids.  We have done pretzel words and cookie words. We've used magnetic letters and playdoh. Just find ways to practice sounding out and spelling simple words.  

Teach Sight Words

After my kids could sound out simple CVC words, I introduced sight words to them. I went online and googled "Dolch List" and found a website called The Schoolbell.com where they have the words split into 11 lists.  I printed out the mini cards, cut and laminated them, and made a couple of sticker charts - one with the list words on it and one that had "List 1, List 2, etc . . ".  We practiced the lists one at a time.  When they passed off list one, they put a sticker on the chart and got a small prize.  When they passed off all 11 lists, they got their own library bag and library card.  

The first time we went through a list, I would say the word, spell it and say it again.  Then the child would do the same.  After we went through all of the list, we went back and the child would read as many as they could.  We put stickers on the sticker chart of all the words they could read.  

We played many games with the sight words to try and make it fun.  One game we called "Sight Word Fortress." We've also done "Don't Eat Pete" with sight words, "Math Pop!" with sight words instead of numbers, and others that I can't remember right now. 

Read Easy-to-Read Books Together

Once my kids were getting the hang of sounding out words and knew enough sight words, we found easy to read books at the library or store or yard sales and read them together.  First, we'd look through the book at the pictures and guess as to what the book was about. We call this "pre-reading" the book. Then we'd go through the book together and I would help with unfamiliar words.  When we got through a book, we would put up a sticker on our chart (if we were doing a sticker chart) or put up whatever kind of incentive we were doing at the time. I like to put up scenes on the wall made of paper and have the kids add things to them to show achievement. I've done fish in an aquarium, gold coins in a treasure chest, soccer balls in a soccer goal, popcorn in a box, and the like.  The kids would write the name of the book on the fish, or coin, and add it to the scene.  It's a nice way to motivate the children.

Again, I want to say that you should not be disappointed if your child is not reading and doing all of these things by the end of Kindergarten.  Some kids will not be ready to read that soon.  These types of activities are things to focus on for years of homeschooling at home. Just take it a step at a time and don't push it if it's causing distress.  Be patient, have fun, and go at your child's pace.  

Summer Reading Charts 2013

I can not believe today is the last day of school! It snuck up on me.  Sneaky last day of school.

Our summer reading starts today!  I love doing summer reading incentives for my kids.  We've done game boards, a beach scene, a balloon pop, and this year we are doing bookworms.

I put summer reading coupons on the back of cut out circles.  The coupons are for a dime, quarter, 30 minutes screen time (wii/computer/show), iTunes download, ice cream, prize basket (which contains random small toys I've collected from different places), or new book. I put the circles in an envelope with their name on it.

I let the kids decorate one circle to be the head of their bookworm and put it up on the wall to get started.

When the kids read a book, they will write it down on their list of books read.  If I think it was a long enough, hard enough book (so at their level) then they get to choose a circle out of the envelope, pull off the coupon, and add the circle to their bookworm (using painters tape so as not to damage the wall).  If it was an easy peasy book for them (i.e., it took them 20 minutes to read) they can still write it down, but will need to combine it with other books in order to earn a segment of their bookworm.

It will be fun to see how long their bookworms will grow this summer!  Yay for summer reading!!

(See how our long the bookworms grew and the kids' favorite books in this summer reading wrap up post)

Magic Sight Word Fortress

The other day as I was practicing sight word flash cards with Christopher, I had an idea to make it a bit more fun for him.  We were on the floor with toys scattered around us and so I grabbed some blocks and made a cage and told him he was going to have to say all the magic sight words to open the cage and rescue whoever was trapped in there.  He decided we should trap a tiger in there.  I said really?  A tiger?  You want to save the tiger that might eat you once you save him? Okay.  He had a lot of fun reading the sight words to get closer to the goal.

The next day he asked if we could do it again, so we did.  This time he wanted to make a huge fortress and put some of his people in there.   I told him batman (who was the good guy that day) was going to have to do some training first to be ready to defeat the evil elephant (who was holding the other people prisoner at this point).  So we went and practiced the flash cards a couple of times while Joshua helped build a large fortress.  He also lined up a bunch of animals along the path which were the elephants henchman.

Batman in training

Then Batman went and read all the words to defeat all the bad guys.  Each time he read a word correctly, he did some karate chopping, took a bad guy away, and knocked down part of the fortress.  He had to read 4 words to defeat the big bad guy elephant.  He had to read another 4 words to break down the walls of the prison.

After I did it with him once, he and Joshua wanted to do it again on their own.  I said "of course".  It was really fun to listen to them play together.  Joshua played the part of the prisoners and would say "Hurry batman! hurry! save us!" and occasionally I would also hear him tell Christopher "remember what the silent e does!" or "what do 'ou' say together?"  It was great to hear him help his brother with his reading.

another version of the sight word fortress

He has asked to play every school day since then, so I would say this sight word game has been a success.

wiggly eye reading helper

It's always a struggle to get Christopher to keep his finger on the paper under the word he is deciphering during our reading lesson.  To try and help him focus, I gave him a popsicle stick to use as a pointer, and to make that more fun, we put an eyeball on it.

He thought it was fun to read with his monster eye on a stick. 

Then he thought it would be fun if his finger had an eyeball, so he could see the words really close up.  

Then he thought he should have at least 2 eyeballs.

Sometimes you've just got to do whatever it takes to help them learn.  Even if it means sticking wiggly eyes all over their body.  

Sight Word Activity

I am helping my 5 1/2 year old to learn to read.  He's not too excited, and I've started and stopped several times with him this past year because I don't want reading to become a chore, but I finally decided to just force it on him.  I know that sounds mean, but he has a lazy, easy going personality and doesn't like to do anything that requires effort, so it's necessary.

We've been working on sight words.  Today we played a game with them that he thought was a lot of fun.  It's a version of the game "Don't Eat Pete", using words instead of pictures.

I printed out a chart of 9 sight words he's currently working on.

We put cheerios on each square.  He closed his eyes, and I pointed to the one that was going to be "Pete". (Maren was playing with us too) Then Christopher opened his eyes and began choosing cheerios to eat.  He had to read the word in the square before he could eat the cheerio he picked up.  If he picked up the cheerio designated as "Pete", we all yelled "Don't Eat Pete!" at him and he laughed, and then his turn was over. Maren also took turns, and at least Christopher was hearing the words even if he wasn't reading them himself.

We played this many times, and then for the last round I put chocolate chips on the squares.

goofball

Even though he puts up a fuss about doing reading lessons with me, I know he is enjoying his new skills. A couple of nights ago I found him reading a book in bed an hour after I had tucked him in.  I had to punish him, but was secretly rather pleased.

Making Books with Young Children

The other day my 6 year old was playing with his camera and came to show me the "action shots" he was getting of his playmobil people.  It was pretty cute.  He had set them up and taken pictures of them sword fighting, climbing a mountain, and fighting a dragon.  He told me who were the good guys and the bad guys.  It game me an idea.

The next day we sat down at the computer together and made up a story.  At this age, kids have so many stories in their heads but it's hard for them to write them out by hand.  I love typing up stories my little ones tell me. I have many saved on my computer and the kids like reading them.  Usually I would print them out and let the kids illustrate them by hand, but Joshua and I decided to use his camera this time instead.

After we had written the story, we got out his toys and set up the scenes for each page.  We had a lot of fun working together to make the pictures look just right.  He was in charge of the camera, and we talked about  how best to take the picture, whether it should be from a distance or a close-up.  Sometimes we had to take several to get it just right.  I tried not to be bothered by crooked ones. Then I put the pictures on my computer and added them to his story.  It took me a bit to figure out how to do the pages so that I could print on front and back and fold it and have them be in the right order, but finally got it figured out.  Joshua loves his book and wanted to print lots of copies to share.

There are so many things you can teach your kids while writing a story together.  While I typed up the story with Joshua we talked about the different parts of a story.  We talked about when to use quotation marks, synonyms for when a word was being used too much, capitalization, and ending punctuation.  When he didn't know what should happen next in the story, we would talk about possibilities and he would choose his favorite.  It was a great project to do together and he told me he is already planning a book 2.

This would also be great to do with beginning readers.  Children are more motivated to read a book they've created themselves.  Make a book with words your begining reader can already recognize and some they are working on.  They will love reading out loud to you a book they have created themselves.

Related to this idea, when my daughter was little she had 2 best friends move away.  To help them remember each other, my friends and I made up stories for them to be the stars of, took pictures of our daughters, and made a book for each of them.  My daughter still likes to look at hers and remember her friends, 6 years later.

"How I Became a Pirate" Pre-K Book Club

I started a summer book club for my 4 1/2 year old daughter and some of her friends. We're meeting once a week through the summer. Each time we will read a book, do a few activities, and have a snack. Yesterday was the first meeting and it was FUN!
We read the book "How I Became a Pirate" by Melinda Long, illustrated by David Shannon. The kids all repeated Braid Beard's (the pirate captain's) instructions as though they were the crew.
A pirate crew needs proper attire, so we made ourselves some pirate hats following these instructions.
Next we played Captain, Captain, Pirate (Duck, Duck, Goose) on the trampoline.
A sword is very important to a pirate, so the children all painted a sword made out of the free paint sticks from Home Depot. I used a large paint stick for the blade and glue gunned half of a small paint stick for the hilt.
In the beginning of the book, the boy Jeremy Jacob is making sand castles when he notices the pirates approaching the shore. We made sand castles out of rice krispy treats. This was really fun. I spread out a rectangle of Press 'N Hold paper on the table and gave them each a good amount of Rice Krispy treat to play with. I greased their hands so it wouldn't stick to the treats. They molded and snacked.
The whole morning was really fun!

Summer Reading Charts

This year I made game board type summer reading charts for the kids. Each chart has 30 spaces, and on every 5th space there is a sticker. Every time they read a book (50 pgs. for my son, 150 for my daughter) they get to stamp a space. When they reach the sticker space they get to choose a small prize from my stash, and when they get to the treasure chest sticker at the end they get a bigger prize (which is a Klutz book this year).

For prizes this year, I bought a bunch of Silly Bandz and those Japanese take apart puzzle erasers at the parent teacher store. My kids love collecting those things. I think they're pretty cute too.

I let the kids decorate their reading charts with stickers and such. Maren put word stickers that say things like "you can do it!" near the prize squares. Funny girl.

We'll start the charts on June 1st. The kids are really excited about them and wish they could start them now.