It started as a discussion about New Year's resolutions and whether you had to wait until January 1st to make one.
It ended as a goal.
My children have decided to set a reading goal for our bedtime stories.
My 4 year old son chose ONE ZILLION books.
My more practical 7 year old daughter has chosen 1,000.
We will start with 1,000 and see where that takes us.
The Plan:
We will track down as many books as we can in our house and hit the local libraries often. We will gladly take recommendations for stories.
The Rules:
- Repeats are OK as long as at least one story each night is a new story.
- With the length of some children's books (I'm looking at you, Potter!), we may count chapters from chapter books as individual steps toward our goal.
The Reviews:
- We will provide a review of each of the stories.
- I will rate the stories on a 10-point scale.
- The kids will rate on a thumb up, thumb down, thumb middle scale.
What we hope to get out of it:
I love books. Now. Up until I was an adult, I always thought of reading as a chore (this was really cemented in high school during The Red Badge of Courage). I don't want that to happen to my kids.
I hope that though our journey to one zillion, I can share, and pass on, that love to my kids.
Don't know if you do Advent or not, but come that time of year, there are three books by Arnold Ytreeide @ http://www.jothamsjourney.com/ that tell a story with a theme for Advent. They'd fit into your "chapter == book" category for sure, but we read through those when our daughter was 4 and enjoyed them. (Bartholomew's story may be a little intense for your 4-year-old)
ReplyDeleteUnrelated to that, but still book-based, my 6-year-old loves Cam Jansen stories. There are "Young Cam Jansen" and Cam Jansen stories available that may work for your crew.
Best book ever that we read alot before bed time. THE POUT POUT FISH. Its a favorite around here!
ReplyDeleteAnd here is a recipe for some Brownies with Honey!
Honey Brownies
1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Cream together butter and sugar. Blend in Honey and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl, combine flour, Cocoa and salt. Gradually stir dry mixture into creamed mixture. Add nuts, if desired. Pour into greased 9x9x1-1/4" pan. Bake at350 deg. for 25-30 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool. Frost with chocolate frosting.