Kids Readings......For Pizza or Pleasure ???

Well, this one is about something that has been on my mind more than once, but was twirling in there again recently so thought I would write about it.

Growing up as a child who did not enjoy school (public or private), suffering from undiagnosed ADD, being painfully shy and who knows what else along with that. ( from age 8 on to 18 ,my brain also was handling (or trying to) the secret of sexual abuse at that hands of two of my big sisters boyfriends) I did not do well with any type of prize winning activities. In fact , I got to the point where I didn't even try at a very young age. We all knew who was going to win those things, the same kids who had perfect attendence, the "gold star" , teacher's pet kid. Why put any effort into it? That was where the label "lazy" came into my life along with teacher remarks like "doesn't put enough effort into things" "doesn't participate enough in class", etc etc.

They had read-a-thons alot among other contests. I was a good reader, but I was not a fast reader. I liked to go slow and enjoy being soaked into the story. Those stories were "safe places" in my childhood. Wonderful escapes. How could I read them so fast like the other kids? Well I didn't, and thus never won any of those prizes.

Fast forward to my own children and the start of the Book-it program from Pizza Hut. For those who are not familiar with it, they actually still have this program here in the USA, it is a reading program to encourage kids to read, they read so many books and they win free pizza. When my oldest kids were little and I was a single parent they attended public school. (even though I wanted to homeschool still, it was not an option at that time in my life) This program was being pushed as a great way to get kids reading. Now don't get me wrong, its not a horrible thing, not at all. I LOVE seeing kids get excited about reading and for some kids this is awesome. But sadly, many of my kids also suffer from ADD or ADHD and I watched them go through the same type of thing I had. Telling me how the teacher annouced to the whole class (or sometimes whole school) how this kid and that kid had earned X amount of pizza vouchers, or even reading all of their stats out loud. My kids who did not read as fast were basically the "losers". I wrote letters, talked to teachers but that was of no use. Just one more of the ins and outs of the whole social dynamics of being in school.

Fast forward a little more. I am re-married to a wonderful Christian man who beleives in homeschooling our children and I am blessed to be able to have a sort of "do-over" with my children. :) I joined a wonderful homeschool group when we lived at our other house. Some of the parents there are involved in the book-it program. They don't push it, mind you, just offer it to other homeschool Moms who want to participate. So it came up as a option for me again. I thought it over and decided on a big NO thanks. Why? Because I want my little children here to read because they LOVE reading, I want them to marinate in their books, soak them up and enjoy the ride. I do not want them to hurry up and read the easiest level books they can find just so they can earn a prize, or have a super long book reading list. I also did away with making a list of all the books they have read. That may seem odd, but it also became a competition among the siblings. Some people read fast, some people read slow, BOTH are okay really, as long as they ENJOY what they are reading. I don't want one child to feel they are "dumb" just because another child reads faster than them. I want all of my children to read for pleasure. Does this mean I never assign a book? No, if I think it will enchance what we are learning, I sometimes assign a book, but even those are books I hope they enjoy. So, no my kids will not be reading to earn pizza, or candy, or stickers, or...well you get it. :) Having a great book to settle down in a comfy spot and get wrapped up in is a treat in and of itself around here. Now, what book can I get into next....