Lexi informed me recently that she has always wanted to participate in a Read-a-thon. I thought that seemed like a pretty reasonable desire, so I set about to make it a reality. We planned our family Read-a-thon for today for a couple of reasons 1)It was too cool to go to the pool and 2)We had already signed up to participate in the PAWS reading program at the library, which I thought would fit into the plan nicely. First, I printed off charts from Pinterest with the day blocked out into half hour increments. I also made slips of paper to draw out of our monkey mug that told us what we were supposed to do during the next 30 minute time block. Throughout the day we kept track of the titles of the books they were reading/listening to and if there was another activity going on during that time period as well. We started our Read-a-thon at 10:30 a.m. by reading under our big tree. Then at 11:00 they made a blanket fort and read under it using flashlights until 11:30.
From 11:30 to 12:00 we switched to listening to an audiobook version of The Sign of the Beaver while we did a sand art project outside.
We took a lunch break from 12:00 to 1:00 while we went to Free Lunch and then to the park for a bit to burn off a little energy. Then we headed to the library. The kids love to go to the library and read magazines, so that's what we did during the 1:00-1:30 time slot.
At 1:30 it was time for our PAWS activity. PAWS is a program where they bring animals into the library and the kids read to them while the dog's handler helps with any words they might struggle with. It is my understanding that the PAWS dogs also help calm children who have to be in the hospital for things like cancer treatments and the kids reading to them is part of their training. It gets the dogs used to being around children and they learn how to lie still next to them. Lexi read to Lucinda, Drake read to Murphy, Garrett read to Murphy's nephew, Logan, and Zac read to a cute little black dog named Echo. After they read to the dogs they got to make a fun catapult out of craft sticks and rubber bands. The librarians had targets taped up onto the book shelves and the kids got to flip small beads out of their catapults at the targets. They are going to be finding beads in that library for years to come! The kids also got a cute black T-shirt for participating. The library does PAWS every Wednesday and the kids are all wanting to go back again soon.
The PAWS activity took a little longer than I was expecting, but it was a nice break and the kids were ready to keep going on our Read-a-thon after that. When we got home we spent the time slot from 3:00-3:30 reading on the trampoline. Then from 3:30-4:00 we listened to some more of The Sign of the Beaver while we made a cherry pie and homemade vanilla ice cream. How I didn't get a picture of that is a mystery to me.....it's a simple matter to make ice cream and pie with 4 helpers, isn't it?!
While our pie was baking, from 4:00-5:00, we listened to more of our audiobook (the kids were really getting into it!) while the kids made their own bookmarks.
Tyson came home and was such a sweetheart and made us all a big omelet for dinner. We took a dinner break from 5:00-6:00. After that everyone had started to burn out just a little so we finished off our last half hour by doing a puzzle while I read to them from our family book club book, The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle. I was incredibly impressed with the kids today. They all really gave our Read-a-thon their best effort and never complained once! Everyone seemed to have a very enjoyable day and they have informed me that this needs to be a new family tradition. So be looking for Family Read-a-thon Take Two next summer!
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