It’s Time Again to Reserve Your 2010-11 BOOK IT! Materials. This year you must enroll your individual family, they are not accepting submissions from groups. It’s a very simple process though, so jump online and get signed up. You should receive the materials around the beginning of September and you can begin setting and rewarding reading goals with your child(ren) in October.

Easy to use and a simple motivator for kids that need an extra nudge to get their nose in a book, or a great reward for those that are already reading up a storm.

Enroll your homeschool family online at the BOOK IT! website

The enrollment period is from March 1 through June 30, 2010. Orders beyond these dates will be filled as supplies allow on a first-come first-served basis.

The program then runs starting on October 1, 2010, and concluding on March 31, 2011

Here is information on a great reading incentive program that is open to homeschoolers as well. Students Kindergarten through eighth grade may participate and earn a free ticket to the Cougar’s game in the spring.

In summary their program works like this:
Ozzie’s Reading Club is an eight-week reading incentive program sponsored by the Kane County Cougars along with Provena Mercy Medical Center. The program is open to children in grades K-8; however, to participate, a student’s school must be a member of the Ozzie’s Reading Club program.

Ozzie’s Reading Club tracks the progress of a student’s reading around the bases of a baseball diamond with the three bases and home plate representing two weeks worth of reading. Each teacher may determine his or her own reading requirements for each base. Students completing the program’s requirements “hit a home run” and earn a free ticket to an April or May Cougars game designated by their school. Other rewards may include a bookmark, a voucher for a hot dog and soda as well as an official Ozzie Reading Club t-shirt.

For more information you need to contact their office:
Kane County Cougars  34W002 Cherry Lane § Geneva, IL 60134

Phone: 630.232.8811  FAX 630.232.8815

E-mail: ozziereadingclub@kanecountycougars.com

If you and your kids earned tickets to Six Flags through their Read to Succeed Program, now is the time to redeem them!

They expire August 9th, just a few weeks away, and the closer we get to that date, the more crowded the park becomes. I just took my girls yesterday and we had a perfect day for it! The crowds did swell a bit in the afternoon, but most of the day we enjoyed short to non-existent lines.

The employees said it was a typical Monday.

Tips for enjoying your day:

• Don’t forget the sunscreen so you don’t regret your trip the following day(s)
• Stay hydrated. We actually were there from the time they opened until they closed and my girls still weren’t done! Keeping plenty of water on hand helps them enjoy the day.
• Bring healthy snacks (but, of course, they need to stay in the car). Rather than filling up on fried food, pop, and sweets, we enjoyed dinner in the parking lot. Whole wheat sandwiches, carrots, fruit, and lots of water. Nothing holding us back from having a lot of fun the whole day at Great America
• Go soon, and preferably earlier in the week. It will never be completely empty, but you have a better chance of fighting fewer crowds this way. We whipped through countless lines before 11:30.
• Take the express lane up 294! If you are taking 94/294 up to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee get in the middle/express lane if at all possible. We crawled through the construction induced congestion that whole stretch while watching cars whiz past us. There is an exit from the express lanes at Grand (where you need to get off for Great America), so you don’t need to worry about missing it. If you stay in the local lanes you could easily count on an hour drive from 90 to the park.

If you do have the free tickets, try not to let them go to waste. We enjoyed a full day of fun for around $20 (including parking). Not bad at all, and the kids deserved it for the great job they did reading this past year.

More flags! More fun!

. . . More Works for Me Wednesday!

Even Chuck E. Cheese is getting in on the action when it comes to encouraging kids to read.

Simply print out these reading reward calendars, have your child read every day for two weeks, and bring it in for 10 free tokens per child with a food purchase. You can get one for each child without needing seperate food purchases for each one (we have 5 children, buy 1 pizza and redeem 5 calendars, plus report cards if it is the end of a grading period).

These are great calendars, and they have a number of other ones on their site as well. If you want some extra encouragement while instilling good habits in your child, check out their other reward calendars (clean room, getting dressed, sleeping all night, manners, etc.) You can only redeem one calendar per child each time you go to Chuck E Cheese, and you must make a food purchase at that time as well, but these are great boredom busters and motivators all year round!

Don’t forget to bring your child’s report card with as well.

They earn tokens for good grades. Need some help putting together your end of the year grades? Check out Donna Young’s site for report cards that you can use for this important record keeping step.

I hope you already take advantage of any summer reading program at your local library, and now you can also enroll your child in a reading incentive program through Barnes and Noble.

A very user friendly program that anyone can enjoy . . . Simply go to Barnes and Noble’s Summer Reading Program and print out the summer reading journal form. Students must simply read 8 books, write them down, and bring in the form anytime between May 26 and September 7. Couldn’t get much easier than that!

While there you can check out their Eduator’s Kit with more ideas for getting and keeping your kids in a book. The theme this summer draws on  Rick Riordan’s series, Percy Jackson & the Olympians.

The form has these books listed as available as a reward for participating:

Grades 1 & 2:

Abe Lincoln’s Hat by Martha Brenner
Biscuit Takes a Walk by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Camping Out by Mercer Mayer
Curious George: Piñata Party/Jorge el curioso y la piñata by H. A. Rey
Fancy Nancy: The Dazzling Book Report by Jane O’Connor
Little Bear’s Visit Else by Holmelund Minarik

GRADES 3 & 4:

Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith
Clarice Bean, Don’t Look Now by Lauren Child
The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth
Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World by Mildred Pitts Walter
Moonwalk: The First Trip to the Moon by Judy Donnelly
Pick of the Litter by Bill Wallace
El ratoncito de la moto by Beverly Cleary
Soupy Saturdays with the Pain & the Great One by Judy Blume
Sugar Plum Ballerinas: Plum Fantastic by Whoopi Goldberg

GRADES 5 & 6:

The Aurora County All-Stars by Deborah Wiles
Beacon Street Girls #1: Worst Enemy/Best Friends by Annie Bryant
Ben and Me by Robert Lawson
Lady Margaret’s Ghost by Elizabeth M. Jones
Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Schooled by Gordon Korman
Sounder by William H. Armstrong
The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin

If free tickets to Great America weren’t already enough, don’t miss out on the FREE PIZZA for your readers and pre-readers as well.

Again, for kids in K-6, this program motivates your child to read by rewarding them with a free personal pan pizza once a month for the six month duration of the program (October through March). And, you must sign up individually rather than through your homeschool group.

Book It! provides a great opportunity for each child to set their own goals and encourages them to get their nose in a book on a regular basis. The certificates are then redeemable for each month they meet their goal and have been great for treats (and convenience!) when we find ourselves schooling while out somewhere during the month.

As one of the commenters mentioned, there is also a program for preschool. This is not open to homeschoolers at this point and runs on a different schedule than the traditional Book It program.

This simple program motivates readers and gives a tasty reward. It has definitely worked for us!

Now is the time to register for this program for the coming school year. Don’t wait!

Looking for more great Frugal ideas?

Want a free ticket for Six Flags, Great America? Now is the time to sign up! Individuals cannot sign up for this program on their own. However, your homeschooling co-op or support group can send in a group registration. If they are not already participating contact your group leader about taking advantage of this beneficial program for kids in Kindergarten through sixth grade.

Here’s the scoop:
Read to Succeed and Six Flags Six Hour Reading Club
Are homeschool organizations eligible to participate?
“Yes, homeschool organizations that include grades K through 6 are eligible to participate. Please contact 1-866-308-1362 for information about eligibility. Due to limited supplies, we can only send one kit to an association to be shared with all its members.”

For all the details check out this link: http://www.rtsregistration.com/

This is open to all schools within 150 miles of a Six Flags park and is a great incentive to get kids into reading more. A simple 6 hour goal and they earn a free ticket.

We have definitely enjoyed these tickets for our kids that have fallen into the appropriate age category in recent years. They grow fast, so make the most of this opportunity while you can!