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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Libraries' Summer Holiday Reading Challenge - anyone's dc taking part ?

73 replies

billynomatesmum · 21/07/2011 12:51

I have drawn a blank mentioning this at school, nominated member of staff for literacy simply not interested in promoting it (yet again), no-one encouraging kids to give it a try. My dc will be signing up for it again this year, oldest keeps asking how soon we can sign up for it.

Do your kids know about it, does your school make parents aware of it ?

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Ismeyes · 22/07/2011 19:55

We are signed up, but heard through the library rather than the school.

I think it is great that it is more flexible on the age for this. We did the bookstart thing for stickers and certificates and DD finished that just before she started school in January. She can now read fairly fluently and turned 5 last month. She is just starting to go through simple chapter books, but she is not allowed to join booktrack until she is 6, which she is very disappointed about.
I don't understand why it can't just start when they start school rather than be fixated on an arbitrary age - some 6 year olds won't be able to read much so I don't get the distinction!

simpson · 22/07/2011 21:00

what is booktrack??

Are they v strict about the age on it??

My DS is 6 next month...

wheresthepimms · 22/07/2011 21:07

Simpson try this although it is for Devon so not sure if it is national

simpson · 22/07/2011 21:19

thanks

Will ask at library next week....

megapixels · 23/07/2011 00:23

There was no publicity at all this year, and just once in a previous year the school has mentioned it at assembly and given out bookmarks. We went to sign up for it the day my eldest's school broke up for the holidays, but the library was closed as they've cut opening hours by 45% here.

It will be DD2's third Summer Reading Challenge, and she's not five yet. The rules are the same for any age though - just read two books for each level (or have an adult read it to you if a pre-reader) and talk about at least one of them to a staff member at the library.

MigratingCoconuts · 23/07/2011 19:41

well, just signed up today now! What a fantastic scheme!

DD and DS (6 and 4) think its great and DD had a pile of books ready to check out before I had even got the scheme sheet filled in

Hope this novelty does not wear off too quickly as this is a great way of keeping her reading through summer...

Rowgtfc72 · 26/07/2011 18:15

We did last years and had to ask for the stickers and things that came with it. Dd completed it and was told she would get a certificate but it never appeared. Not sure we can be bothered this year.

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 26/07/2011 21:36

We got bookmarks in the school bookbags, and the librarian did say she'd been into our school when we were signing up on Saturday, although my DCs hadn't mentioned this. I found it hard to get them to finish it last year, they lost interest after the first couple of visits, although they both like books a lot.

DS (7) has found that the cardboard stages make excellent toy goals for his World Cup Gogos to play football with.

JemimaMuddledUp · 27/07/2011 17:15

We took the first books back today to change and I am sure they gave us too many stickers. Each child had two sticker sheets, each with two halves. I have a horrible feeling that this is all the stickers for the first 4 books...

The scratch and sniff ones are vile!

ragged · 27/07/2011 19:21

DS7 wouldn't leave the library premises, after signing up, until he'd read the first two!
They were Asterix Comix, btw.
I'm just chuffed that he wrote the titles & author down himself (anything to get a 7yo boy to write something).
9yo DD has declared she's too old & she hates circuses, anyway. .

SE13Mummy · 27/07/2011 23:02

DD1 was desperate to do this year's challenge almost as soon as she finished last year's one. She's 6, loves reading and adores receiving stickers, certificates etc. etc. A librarian came to school and spoke about Circus Stars (I teach at DD's school so was there too) and this only fired her enthusiasm further.

As a result we've been to the library every day since Saturday and DD has completed the challenge. Disappointingly, the librarian who came to school said that each library had 15 t-shirts and bags as prizes for the first 15 who completed the scheme. Today DD went in with DH, having been told yesterday that no-one had completed it and she might be lucky today, to discover that she was number 11 to finish it. However, they only had 7 bag/t-shirt prizes so they had already gone.

She was devastated; she'd known all along that she probably wouldn't be in the first 15 but to learn that she was and that the prizes didn't stretch that far was gutting :( cue lots of lip biting at the library followed by tears at home. She's been wailing, "but it's not fair that the librarian came to the school and lied to us... it's not right to get children all excited and then to change how many prizes". I've explained that it was probably a mistake/misunderstanding but the apparently changed goalposts haven't gone down well with this 6-year-old. In the assembly when the librarian announced the 15 prizes I wished she hadn't as I could imagine some children in my class not bothering once the prizes had gone. Now I wish she hadn't because then DD1 would have just enjoyed completing the challenge instead of feeling cheated .

nojustificationneeded · 27/07/2011 23:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

wheresthepimms · 28/07/2011 10:20

wow your libraries really do a lot, mine are happy with the fact that they get stickers and can colour a picture to go on the library wall. There was no mention of any other prizes, other than a yoyo for finishing

JemimaMuddledUp · 28/07/2011 10:51

I haven't heard of any other prizes in our library either.

Surely a prize for the first ones to finish would just encourage children to take out really easy/short books rather than something that they would enjoy? For example my 7 and 8 year olds could take out 6 of the learning to read books that my 5 year old reads, take them to the park round the corner to read and have them back to the library within the hour?

I have told my DC that we will visit the library once a week, roughly midweek, to change their books. They take out one book at a time. My 7 year old tends to read his books within the first 24 hours, whereas my 8 year old takes longer. My 5 year old DD obviously needs me or DH to sit with her and listen to her read, so it takes a little while. I don't want DS2 to have finished all 6 books when DS1 is still on his first, as it is DS1 who needs the encouragement to stick with reading the same book all the way through to the end!

wheresthepimms · 28/07/2011 11:00

Mine took out 4 books each, but have then swapped their books with each other so the older 3 have read 12 books in the last week but I told them they can only mark down the ones they picked on their chart, otherwise my morning at the library once a week idea would be over in one week. I know we will finish after this weeks set of books but towards the end of the holidays we are pretty full on with visitors etc so not that worried

SE13Mummy · 28/07/2011 13:56

Our library will only let children have two signed off per day, question the children on the plot, character etc. of each book. There was one older child who'd tried the '6 short picture books' approach and was told she needed to redo it 'properly'.

wheresthepimms · 28/07/2011 14:01

our Librarian told me that they could take as many as they wanted and as long as they could explain the plot it was OK, they did ask what reading level they were and wrote it down on their tickets. Also think she mentioned something about taking more than 2 books only being ok if you were taking books for the next couple of weeks sort of thing

JemimaMuddledUp · 28/07/2011 14:06

I'm sure we could have taken more than one book at a time (DD takes two out as she brings one home for her to read and a picture books for us to read to her, she only counts the one that she reads for the reading challenge though) but I'm only letting the boys take one at a time as DS1 will read the first chapter of them all but not not get any further and DS2 will read 8 books in a week and then taunt his brother that he has finished the challenge before him

Neutral1 · 01/08/2011 12:33

Ours didn't ask any questions on the books at all just said okay, take a sticker and on to the next. Very poor. Daughter commented "Oh didn't need to have read it to get my stickers". Oh and stickers not scratch and sniff as mentioned elsewhere. Also hardly any books left in kids section so hard to get 2 new books that are appropriate level and interesting. Bit of an anticlimax really.

nojustificationneeded · 01/08/2011 20:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JemimaMuddledUp · 01/08/2011 20:51

They didn't ask any questions here either. But I have been getting DS1 and DS2 to write reviews on the review sheets that we picked up in the library.

The scratch and sniff stickers come after the 2nd, 4th and 6th books. Although we have been given the stickers for books 1-4 all at once.

Off to change books again tomorrow.

woolleybear · 01/08/2011 21:27

We got our first stickers today, they didn't ask dd any questions but then she was having a bit of a shy moment and didn't even want to tell them the titles! She is 4, she chooses 5 ish books and then whichever two she can read most of herself we right down.

JemimaMuddledUp · 09/09/2011 22:23

Off to pick up our last lot of stickers etc tomorrow.

I am very pleased - DS1 has been moved up a reading level in school after his teacher listened to him read this week. He also got the "excellent work" certificate for the week for a piece of work which was written very expressively. I am sure both of these are partly to do with keeping up the reading over the summer.

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