It's That Time of Year Again: Summer Reading Programs

With the beginning of May also comes enrollment in summer reading programs. I don't know about your kiddos, but mine really love those reading incentives--thankfully they also love to read just for the fun of it, but prizes never hurt, right?

So I wanted to pass these ideas along for you and your kiddos. The following are the ones I've found so far for this summer.

Your local library~always check there! Our local library not only has a reading program with prizes, they also have a few fun events {animals shows, etc.} planned, too.
Barnes and Noble's Imagination's Destination
Pottery Barn Kid's Summer Reading Challenge
Chuck E. Cheese~reward your kids with free tokens for reading (and many other things, too)
Scholastic's Summer Challenge

And you never know, there may be other programs local to where you live, so always do a search to see if there are.

Plus, you can also create your very own reading program for your home. We have one! For Christmas our kiddos received some new electronics so in order to limit their time on them we've created the "book basket". They need to spend at least 30 minutes each day in order to earn 15 minutes on their electronics.

I keep a good selection of books--on each of their reading levels--handy in the basket. Of course, our many bookshelves around the house are always handy, too. We make books a priority in our home.

And don't forget to get enrolled in Pizza Hut's Book-It Program for the fall, too! Their enrollment for that just opened as well.

Have fun reading this summer!

*****

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The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

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