"Fizz, Boom, Read!" Summer Reading Program 2014

The kids and I did A LOT of reading this summer!  Within the 2 months that our library's summer reading program ran, I read 24 hours to the kids.  Morgan ended up with nearly 74 hours, so 50 hours of reading on her own!  Blake ended with about 29 hours, which was mostly from what I read to him, but Morgan read some books to him too without me.

 

It's really fun reading with the kids, but a couple things made it a little extra fun this summer.  The library's summer reading program theme was science, which the kids LOVE.  They kicked off the summer reading program by having the Michigan Science Center come and do all sorts of neat fire-type reactions.  I have to admit that it was pretty awesome!  I was so involved that I almost forgot to take pictures, but got a couple at the very end. :-)

 

 Beyond the kick-off, the library then had a different science activity almost every Friday.  We missed the first one where they were making lava lamps, but we made it to make terrariums.  (FYI-I can not keep house plants alive...they died, we replaced them, those died...I gave up!)

 

There was a sink/float activity that I didn't get pictures of.  Basically the kids put different things in water to see what would sink and what would float, then they experimented with different candy to see what would sink/float.

 

The kids also made what is a lot like silly putty one Friday.  That was pretty cool...as you can see from Morgan's expression :-)

Another Friday, we had some friends over, and they went with us to do some solar activities.  The kids made bracelets with beads that changed color in the light and raced solar cars. :-)

 

The last 'science' activity was mostly using pop and having it react to things.  The best one was using pop and Mentos and seeing the pop shoot WAY up in the air! :-)

 

The library ends the summer reading program with a picnic each year and this year they had a local place come and bring some exotic animals.  I hadn't heard of most of the animals before and it was really neat learning about each one!

 

There were also prizes drawn after the picnic and Morgan happened to win one!  It just topped off a very fun reading program this summer.

The other thing that made reading extra fun for us this summer was reading some classics and then having movie nights to watch the movies based on those classics.  These are the ones that I can remember reading: Little Women, A Little Princess, How to Train Your Dragon (saw the movie first, then wanted to read the book) and The Secret Garden.  It seems like there were more, but those were the main ones.  I think we read some of the stories that the Disney Princess movies were based off of too.  We also read Farmer Boy, (we had read Little House in Big Woods this past winter), and I hope to read Little House on the Prairie soon too.  I hope to track down some of the TV episodes so the kids can see those after we read it.  We had SO MUCH fun doing this, I hope to do even more next summer...if I can wait that long...it might end up being an ongoing thing.  ;-)

Winning the Reading Race!

For March is Reading Month, Morgan's teacher had a little competition within the classroom.  The kids were to try to finish as many of the accelerated reading tests as they could.  Morgan had told me about it, but for some reason it didn't register what she was actually doing...until she won!  LOL!  She read her little heart out at school, in a way racing with the other kids to read as much as she could, and managed to complete 42 tests! 

I think she was most excited about getting her name in the classroom newsletter:

 

All the kids received a prize of a pencil and bookmark as long as they did the competition.  Four kids received the pen, notebook and highlighter for reading a bit more.  For winning, Morgan's teacher is letting her pick out up to $10 worth of books from the Scholastic Book Order.  (Morgan said she also got a pencil too, but she kept it at school to use it there.)

 

A little side note: Blake's teacher held a popcorn themed challenge for his class for March is Reading Month.  Each week that they read 5 books (at home), they got a small prize (like a popcorn pencil, a popcorn bookmark and a bag of microwave popcorn).  If they finished reading 5 books (or more) every week for the month, they could get a big prize. Blake, and several other classmates, completed the challenge and brought home a popcorn bucket full of goodies!

 

I'm so proud of Morgan for her determination.  It doesn't surprise me, though, since she loves to read!  I'm also very proud of Blake.  He isn't into reading as much as Morgan is, and needs more assistance, but he was just as determined to have me sit down with him and read to complete the challenge.

Record a Story Keepsake Storybook Review

When I think of my favorite time of the day that I spend with the kids, it's the time we spend together reading bedtime stories. I love everything about it. I love seeing the joy in their faces while they pick out their favorite books. I love how they run to their places on the couch and start looking at the books before I even get there. I love cuddling with my favorite two little ones, while reading books that spark their imaginations and foster their love for reading. I even love that they still want that time after a super long day and they both fall asleep while I'm reading so I have to carry them to bed.

Being that reading bedtime stories is my favorite time with my kids, it's also the time that I miss most when I'm away. And if I miss it, I'm sure they do too. So when I first heard about Record a Story Keepsake Storybooks, I thought it was an awesome idea! I thought it was great that I could record myself reading to my kiddos and they could look page through the book together and listen to me read it whenever I was away. It'd be comforting to me that I could still read to them, and comforting to them to still hear my voice before going to bed.

I was fortunate to have Publications International, Ltd. contact me and send me their Record a Story Keepsake Storybook,"Good Night, Sesame Street", to review! Take a look at the short video to see how the book already reads when it first comes in the mail:


One thing you may have noticed when I was turning pages was that the book has a tendency to start the music up for the wrong page. The reason it does that has to do with the lighting, so the book should be read in a well lit area. I also didn't show the whole book, if you're wondering why the book seems so short ;-)

I actually decided not to record my voice in the book, since I happen to know a little one who LOVES Elmo that I'd like to give this to. I'm sure she'd rather have her mom or dad's voice over mine. But I took a look at the directions for recording and they're super simple. The directions also tell the reader how to unlock the book so their voice can be recorded and how to lock it again so their voice can't be recorded over. The locking switch is inside the battery compartment, so little fingers can't get to it. Great features! :-)
Since I won't be keeping my review copy, I was looking into which book I'd like for Morgan and Blake:

I like this one for the times I'm gone.

With Christmas coming, I like this one.

Whichever one I decide on, I'm sure the kiddos will love having their mom reading to them whenever they want and especially the times I can't be there for bedtime stories :-)

Be sure to check out their other cute storybook selections here.

Publications International, Ltd is also doing what they can to help keep military families connected this Christmas with their Record a Story Keepsake Storybooks. This is what they have to say about their Operation Record a Story program:

"This fall and into the holiday season, military parents about to deploy will have the chance to arrange for shared story time with their children even after they leave for their tours of duty, through United Through Reading's Military Program. Operation Record a Story, a program sponsored by Publications International, Ltd. (PIL), has donated thousands of books, many from its award-winning Record a Story collection, to the nonprofits USO and United Through Reading. Through these organizations, service members can record the stories for their children before they deploy. The books, along with a DVD of the parents recording the story, will then be shipped to the kids for the holidays."

I think what PIL is doing for military families is wonderful and if you do too, you can find ways to make a donation here.

Buy it!: If you'd like to purchase a Record a Story Keepsake Storybook, they run $16.95 to $19.95 and can be purchase on their website here.

*Disclosure: I was sent a Record a Story book for review and was not compensated in any other way. The views expressed in the post are my own.

Fun Links!

I came across these links this past week and liked them SO MUCH that I just had to share them!

Spring Crafts, Fun & Activities for Families eBook: This is a FREE eBook and has SO MANY fun crafts to do with kiddos this Spring! I've looked through it several times already dreaming about the fun the kiddos and I could have...and we've already made one of them! :-)

We Give Books: I actually just discovered this site this morning after reading today's post on Give Every Day. This site allows you to read books to your children online for FREE. The books you, or your child, like can be added to your 'library' and read over and over again. The coolest part is that for each book you read to your child, a book is given to a charitable campaign of your choice! I have already signed up and within 20 minutes Blake and I were able to read AND give 5 books to the NEA Foundation's Teaching Excellence Award winners' schools....we're going to start reading to give to the Jumpstart for Young Children program next! :-)

'D' is for Dog

I think learning about the letter 'D' is the most fun we've had so far...check out what we Did! :-)

The kiddos' Dog word wheels. The words on the wheels this time were: Dog, Doctor, Dragon and Dish. (We Didn't Do anything with Dragon and Dish, since I couldn't come up with anything, so we used the word Duck instead!)

We played Dog games.

Cuddled with Dogs During reading time.

Read about some Dogs.

Made Dog puppets while singing about a special farmer's Dog named "Bingo" ;-).

Moving on to Ducks! We read about some fun Ducks!

Then played a Duck game.

And with the word Doctor, we played a popular Doctoring game.

Then we played Dress-up as Doctors!

Morgan Doctoring Blake.

Blake as the Doctor.

Blake Doctoring Morgan.

And in the Bible we learned about Daniel. Morgan also had her church program practice that night, which is called "That's So Daniel!"

Part of the reason we had so much fun with the letter 'D' was all the games we played, but my favorite part was how creative the kiddos got while playing Doctor Dress-Up! While I was being Doctored, I Discovered that Micky Mouse is in my eyes. Not only is he in there, but he had made himself at home by getting all cozy under a blanket! I may have never known my eyes were home to a special Disney mouse if Morgan hadn't been my Doctor that Day. ;-)

'C' is for Cat

You are all more than welcome to ignore these posts because I'm sure they'll get redundant (if they haven't already-LOL!) These are for me to document the learning fun the kids and I have had together, but if someone gets some ideas from these posts, that's great too! :-)

Blogger went a little Crazy while uploading this pic...ended up a bit Cockeyed ;-) These are the kids' Car word wheels that Contain the words: Cookie, Car, Cat and Computer.

Morgan got a little Crazy with Coloring on this wheel. She also Cut it out herself!

The Cat puppets with special Cat stickers :-)

Instead of making MORE Cookies, I had froze some leftover round sugar Cookies from St. Patrick's Day and the kids just decorated them.

This is Morgan's 'Crazy Cool Colorful Cookie Creation'

Of course, they had to Chow down on the Cookies when they were done...although Blake Couldn't wait for his to be decorated-LOL!

We read about some special Cats.

Also did some reading about Creation.

Then the kids Crashed on the Couch after being all Cuddly Cozy reading....plus the sugar Cookies wore off ;-)

In the middle somewhere we also sang "PussyCat, PussyCat" and "The Cat and the Fiddle" (aka Hey Diddle, Diddle).

To end our learning about the letter 'C', we played on our Computers! :-)

'B' is for Butterflies, Bears and a Boatload of things!

To keep my head from spinning too much with ideas, I'm keeping learning about each letter to the words mentioned in the wheels that are sent home from school with Morgan (plus something from the Bible when it works out)....

These are the kids' Butterfly wheels. The wheels have words/pictures of a Bear, Butterfly, Book and Boat

Their Bear puppets.

I used a Bear mold to make these Bear Buddies.

Blake Biting into his Bear.

Morgan too!

We read about Butterflies...

(I couldn't get this picture to upload properly.)

...and Bears...


...and in the Bible we read about a Big Boat.
(This pic also wouldn't upload right.)
I think you can see we tried reading a lot of Books, since Book was one of our words too. :-)

Besides all that we also sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Arky Arky"...which is about that Big Boat in the Bible ;-)

Morgan also spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with words that start with 'B'. It was neat to see her so interested, but she seemed to get the 'b' sound confused with the 'p' sound...something to work on I guess! :-)

'A' is for Apple...and other things.

Morgan's teachers send activities to do at home on occasion and yesterday they sent home a couple activities working with the letter 'A'. Well Morgan couldn't wait to do them, so I made a copy (so Blake wouldn't feel left out) and we expanded on their learning the letter 'A' a bit....

We started by making some apple wheels. When the kids turn the wheel behind, they see 4 different things that start with the letter 'A'-Apple, Alligator, Apron and Ant.

Then they made some Apple puppets.

After that it was time for a snack, so we had Apples!

Then we put on our Aprons...

...and mixed up some Jello to make...

...Apple-shaped Jello Jigglers!

We did a little reading about Alligators.

Then sang a song about Ants. (The Ants Go Marching.)

Of course we are trying to focus more on God and reading the Bible (and sticking to it!), so we also read about Abraham.

And sang "Father Abraham" to add some more fun to it all! ;-)