Sunday, June 10, 2012

(I Really Hope that My) Guys Read

Last summer I had some success with reading incentives for my kids, despite the group think on the Internet that says you shouldn't reward kids for reading.  (Those articles written, of course, by people whose kids already love to read voluntarily).  As for me, I'd rather reward them for reading than anything else they are likely to spend time on this summer.  So I set out this summer to find an incentive program that would be easy to manage and fun to do for boys.

I didn't find any canned programs, or apps, for that matter, that would help.  But I did find some good sites with resources encouraging kids, and boys in particular, to read.  One is http://guysread.com, and I even went as far as to buy a T-Shirt from them.  Another is http://readkiddoread.com/, which is an endeavor associated with book writing machine James Patterson, who also has several books series aimed at middle school students and teens.

I decided to roll my own incentive program, complete with 20 levels (from Barney to Avengers) and two Tiers, based on ability.  Tier 1 is for my younger boys, and Tier 2 for my teenager.  There is a financial incentive associated with each level that escalates the further you go.  So you may only get $1 for "clearing" the Barney Level, but $6 for clearing the Wolfpack level.  So if you are cranking out books come late July, you will have earned some good spending money - and hopefully read some great books!  We are also planning to incorporate sleepover privileges and some gaming privileges with clearing certain levels.  There are some other kids in the 'hood who are also going to join in.  Results will be tracked on another good reading resource site http://www.goodreads.com/

Anyone is welcome to borrow and modify the table below, which I am providing with the hopes that other parents will get their guys (and girls) to read, if they are not already.




Pages of words (cumulative)

Incentive Level
Tier 1
Tier 2
1
Barney Level
75
150
2
Bob the Builder Level
150
300
3
Lego Star Wars Level
225
450
4
Panther Level
300
600
5
Falcon Level
375
750
6
Wolfpack Level
450
900
7
Eric Staal Level
525
1050
8
Philip Rivers Level
600
1200
9
John Cena Level
675
1350
10
George Washington Level
750
1500
11
Ronald Reagan Level
825
1650
12
Columbus Level
900
1800
13
Thomas Edison Level
975
1950
14
Mozart Level
1050
2100
15
Copernicus Level
1125
2250
16
Steve Jobs Level
1200
2400
17
Albert Einstein Level
1275
2550
18
Neil Peart Level
1350
2700
19
Isaac Newton Level
1425
2850
20
Avengers Level
1500
3000

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