Play, plant, play

well, and storytime where Matthew finally got his prize from last summer's reading program contest, yea!

Summer reading

Matthew showing off his beautiful "Rainbow fish" he made at one of the reading days.


I talked about how Matthew and I were involved in the summer reading program this summer, way back at the beginning, but I never talked about the outcome. At least I don't think so. On the last day we'd already read more then enough to fill our sticker chart. (16 hours to fill the chart.) But we handed in our final list anyway. I figured the extra stickers would be fun for him. They weren't ready to be handed back that day or the next so I figured we'd wait until the next week when we went to get more books. Matthew, when we first went, might pick 1 book and then I'd pick a few more for him. Now he's really gotten into it and he normally picks around 10 by himself. One day I had to cut him off at 14. I've learned to take our small bag with us. Since he likes going so much we are continuing to go once a week. They assure me there will be storytime during the school year and we are looking forward to attending if schedules work out. Anyway when we went back the next week we were amazed and pleased to find that he had won the 3-6 year old division by reading 22 hours and 39 minutes! That was how much we read between June 9th and July 14th. I was blown away. I knew the whole family read to him alot, but I never would have guessed it was that much. The second place child read 14 hours. Another outcome of the reading program was that we now read 1 book at naptime and 2 at bedtime. It has really helped bedtime go smoother and it's fun as well.

Have any of you picked up something new this summer?

Make a Splash

Today was the first day of the summer reading program. I was nervous that Matthew would misbehave. My worries were for not. He sat next to one of his daycare friends and did just what he was supposed to.

Today was beach fun. Here he is playing musical beach ball.

Before this they sang a song and read the book Bats at the Beach, which we have. Then they colored a beach picture. I didn't think to take pictures till the time was almost up. Silly me!

He's out, but not a bit upset. We got some new books at the library and have started on our quest to fill up the sticker chart by reading 16 hours over the next 36 days. We've already read 35 mins towards that goal. I bet we can do it!