Reading Contest

This summer I signed Cherish and Andrew up for our library's reading contest. It was simple. Online, log each book read and each week, if a child read even a portion of a book, he/she got prizes--like pencils, stickers, food coupons, etc.

The contest included all children--even infants. If an infant looked at a book while his mom/dad read the one-word-a-page book, it counted. (The library staff just wants children introduced to books so they can grow a love for reading.)

At the end of the summer, if a child read ten (10) books, he/she received a free new book to keep. My children were so excited to earn a free book!

So, we read.
And logged.
And read.
And logged.

I knew I only had to log 10 books per child, but I have "Type A" teacher qualities. Since I had started logging, I reasoned: Why not continue? I was curious how many books the children "read" in a summer.

Well, we received a phone call last week. It was on our answering machine. It was Saturday afternoon, and we didn't receive the message until Saturday evening.

BOTH children had won the "Top Reader" award for our city. BOTH children. We were all shocked! The children were invited to a ceremony to receive a metal. We didn't even know such a contest existed! The children began jumping up and down cheering.

At the ceremony, Cherish and Andrew were called up front (with some other children) to receive their metals. The lady in charge of our city's libraries explained that about 8,000 children had entered the contest. Fifteen (15) children were chosen as "Top Readers" in the "birth through 6-year-old" group and fifteen (15) children were chosen as "Top Readers" in the "7 through 12-year-old" group. Cherish and Andrew were two of the fifteen children in their age group chosen for the metals! AND, we didn't even know there was such a contest!

Cherish had read 147 books, and Andrew had "read" 114 books.


One day I snapped a picture of Cherish coming in from the car. She couldn't stop reading long enough to even get out of the car and come into the house! Walking while reading. She's my bookworm!

The celebration was held at our city's zoo, in one of their gathering "rooms". The children got to spend the day at the zoo, enjoy face painting, snow cones, crafts, etc.

They were both so excited!

So, how did these precious children begin to love books? I used to use the minutes after they woke up from nighttime and naps to snuggle with them and read them picture books. As babies, they associated books with snuggling and everything good. ♥