50 Book Challenge

For the past three years, one of my New Year’s Resolutions has been to read a book a week, for a total of 52 books per year. In 2020, I challenged my kids to join me and called it the 50 Book Challenge. Should be easy, right? We have two free weeks built in! Haha. Whoever accomplished this by Dec 31, 2020 earned a prize.

 My prize idea was to pick out a new book at the bookstore. Ha! Their idea of a prize was to pick out a donut at Dunkin’ Donuts. As the resident Best Mom Ever in our house, I made the executive decision to do both.

Here’s the thing. Through doing this challenge, I discovered that my kids often read in spurts. They find a series they love and read 5 books in two weeks. Then they don’t read except at bedtime for a couple more weeks. But the great part of the 50 Book Challenge is that this is okay. The point is to just read 50 books by the end of the year, no matter what your method is.

Study after study has shown that kids who read perform better in every area of school. Studies have also shown that adults who read have improved thinking skills, concentration, empathy, emotional intelligence and more! So join me in this challenge for 2021! It’s a fun way to get everyone motivated to read more.

 I made this chart for us to keep track of our books—use it and join us! Download it here for free.

Parent/Child Book Club Planning Sheet

As you may know, I love mother/daughter or mother/son book clubs, and I can’t say enough good about them. You can find many of my old posts about parent/child book clubs here. Parent/child book clubs get kids excited not only about reading, but about reading books they wouldn’t normally read. Plus, there’s the whole “book club” element! There’s something fun about reading the same book as your friends and talking about it. It also provides one more connection you can make with your child, which is always a win.

So I thought it might be helpful to create a planning sheet for those of you who would like to host your own parent/child book club.  

First, pick a date and time that works for everyone. If you don’t want to meet at your house, you could meet at a local park or even the library, where you can often reserve private rooms.

Then pick the book. I often choose Newbery winners, just because they have already been vetted and are usually deep enough to warrant a discussion.

While food is optional, it sure is fun to have themed food – something characters ate in the book or something that goes along with a theme in the book.

Then plan an activity! For me, this is always the fun part. I’ve done art projects, something active, or something the characters in the book do – anything to make the book come alive for your kids.

Lastly, come up with your own discussion questions or find some online. The best questions are the ones without specific answers, those that make the kids think and discuss.

So here’s a planning sheet, and I hope it helps! If you host a parent/child book club, tell me! I’d love to hear all about it!

Reading Log Freebie

Hi everyone!

A few years ago, I started keeping a list on my phone of all the books I’d read for the year. I have loved doing this because my memory is really bad, and if someone asks me what books I’ve read lately, I can never remember. However, now I can easily reference my list and recommend the books I’ve loved.

Goodreads is obviously a great resource for doing this as well, but I just haven’t found the time to log in and record all the books I read.

But then I started thinking about my kids. They read a lot, but I can never remember which kid read which books. That and a couple of them said they didn’t like reading, claiming that they didn’t read very much. But I knew that if they recorded the books they read, by the time the year ended, they would be surprised. Plus, I think it’s fun to look back at what books I’ve read over the past year— I figured they’d enjoy that, too.

So I made this handy dandy reading log, and it’s free! Download it, print it out, and hang it on the wall in your child’s room. Or put it in their school binder. Wherever. Each time they finish a book, they can write it down and rate it.

I think this is a great way for kids to realize just how much they actually are reading and to reflect on books they’ve loved (or hated).

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes with my kids, and I’d love to hear how it goes with yours! And don’t forget to download your free copy HERE.

Happy reading!!