Monthly Archives: October 2011

Helping kids understand 7 billion people

According to UN calculations, the world’s population is expected to reach 7 billion sometime today, October 31, 2011.

That’s an incredible number, one that’s hard for even adults to wrap their heads around. But what about kids? When I told my boys about this milestone, I could see they were struggling a bit to grasp the enormity of it.

So I pulled out a fantastic book I bought a few years ago, that is just perfect for the occasion.

if the world were villageIn ‘If the World Were a Village‘, author David Smith invites young readers to imagine the world as a global village of 100 people, with each person representing 62,000,000 people in the real world. Since its publication, the population has already grown enough so that today, each person in Smith’s village would have to represent 70,000,000 people! But that does not take away from the book’s value in any way…

Smith discusses nationalities, languages, ages, religions, food, air and water, schooling and literacy, money and possessions, and electricity, in ways and numbers that kids can grasp. It finishes with a view of our village in the future, as well as resources on teaching children about the earth’s population.

Some stats that surprised my kids (and even me, if I’m completely honest!)

  • Of the 100 people in our global village, only 30 people have enough to eat. 50 are hungry all or some of the time, and 20 are severely undernourished. This is despite the fact that there is enough food to feed everyone: it is jut not divided equally…
  • 32 of our villagers breathe air that is unhealthy because of pollution.
  • Of the […]
By |October 31st, 2011|Reviews, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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My kid’s got the Assigned Reading Blues

Assigned Reading AnxietyMy kids are finishing up their mid-term break this weekend, and it’s been great fun for them. They’ve had fabulous outings with grandparents, play dates with friends, and chilling-out time with us at the cottage.

My younger guy, however, has had a little black cloud hanging over his head for most of the week because he had 2 pretty major reading assignments, one in English, and one in French, due when he goes back this week.

You know about my passion for getting kids to read, and how important I know it is. But I have a problem with this kind of assigned reading, when kids almost can’t help but associate reading with feelings of negativity, and almost despair.

Neither one of these books were books of his choice, and neither are they what one would call a classic. I would feel a bit better about it had one of these been the case. For their French assignment, they were given a few minutes in the school library to pick a book off the shelves, and THAT was what they had to read. Make the wrong choice, as my son appears to have done, and it’s simply too bad. It’s back to school in 2 days, and he’s struggling to get through 180 boring pages. And believe me, he is counting every page and minute.

His English assignment was slightly better, in that they had to choose from the Classic Starts collection, so at least he read something worthwhile (Robin Hood).

I would much prefer the teachers had asked them to do a set amount of reading per day, with books of their choices, rather than […]

By |October 30th, 2011|Reluctant readers, Uncategorized|2 Comments
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5 Reasons Why Your Kids Shouldn’t Read

Sometimes, it feels like you’re banging your head against a wall trying to get those kids of yours to read. Do you want my advice? Don’t bother. Here are my top 5 reasons why your kids should stay away from books.

  1. The more kids read, the more they know.Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader

    2. Seriously, who wants kids to know stuff? Just think about all the conversations you’ll be forced to have about topics you may know nothing about. It’s enough they learn all this stuff in school, and then bug us with homework we can’t remember how to do anymore. Are YOU smarter than a fifth grader? I know I’m not, and I certainly don’t need my kids trying to outsmart me with all the things they’ll learn from reading.

  2. When kids read, they can lose themselves in imaginary worlds

    3. Narnia? Hogwarts? Camp Half-Blood? Seriously, those places do not exist, and pretending they do is just plain silly. Will knowing where to place them on an imaginary map help my kid with his geography grade? Will reading about how to train a dragon get my boys to walk their dog more often? I think not. Why let them dream about far-away, fairytale lands when real life is always so wonderful?

  3. Kids who read, succeed

    4. Research has shown that the more you read, the smarter you become, and that reading directly affects a child’s intellectual development. Who wants successful children? You know what that means, don’t you: a successful child is one that will eventually leave home. Now, I know you love your children. Love them more than life itself, right? […]

By |October 19th, 2011|Reluctant readers|2 Comments
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New Reading Log Printables!

While many use Reading-Rewards.com as a great alternative to paper reading logs, few people realize that we have a cool ‘Printables’ section where kids and teachers can print off reading progress using a number of different reading log templates and reports.

Today we added a comprehensive Classroom Reading Summary Report, which provides a reading group administrator detailed stats that include the following:

  • Total reading minutes per student
  • Total number of books finished per student
  • Reading minutes (graph form)
  • Percent target reached (if you have set a daily or weekly reading target for your students, this pie chart will show you which percentage of your students reached the target, on average, in the period.
  • A detailed list of books read, along with student reviews, grouped by student name

The report will look something like this:

This is our most comprehensive report yet, and we really hope you like it!

How to print off your classroom reading summary report:

  1. Log in to your Reading-Rewards.com account
  2. Click on ‘Printables’
  3. Select the group you want the report for
  4. Select the date range you are interested in
  5. Click on the ‘Print’ button in the ‘Group Summary’ sectionClassroom Reading Log Summary
  6. Your report will begin to download immediately!

While you’re on the Printables tab, be sure to browse around a take a look at the different reading log templates and reports we have available:

By |October 17th, 2011|Reading Rewards|1 Comment
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Geocaching: get kids reading … a compass!

GeocachingAbout a year ago, my family and I discovered Geocaching, an amazing outdoor activity that teaches kids to read… maps, that is! We had heard about it from various people, and thought we’d give it a try one fall weekend when heading out for hike.

Our kids generally love the outdoors, but the idea of a 2 hour trek through the forest didn’t do much for them. But when we mentioned we’d combine it with a treasure hunt, and their challenge would be to find hidden treasures along the trail, they couldn’t wait to get going!

Geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices. There are over 1,500,000 hidden geocaches all over the world, so chances are, there are some near you.

Our first time, we happened to be going to Pinnacle, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, and we found out on the geocaching.com website that there were at least 3 hidden caches there, along our planned hike route. Yay!

You don’t need much more than a GPS-enabled device (in our case, iPhones!), and a free membership on Geocaching.com. There you can search their database for caches near you or near your destination: you’re sure to find one! You will get the exact GPS coordinates of the ‘cache’, as well as a description of the site and other attributes (difficulty, for example).

Geocaching app

Once you get closer, use your GPS or smart phone with Geocaching app, and navigate closer to the hiding spot. I loved doing this with the iPhone app, because it would tell […]

By |October 13th, 2011|Literacy activities|0 Comments
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  • halloween
    It’s a Halloween Treasure Hunt! It’s a Halloween Treasure Hunt!

    It’s a Halloween Treasure Hunt!

It’s a Halloween Treasure Hunt!

It’s that time of the year again, and we thought we’d send the kids on a Halloween Treasure Hunt!

Between now and the end of October, Reading-Rewards.com members will be racing each other to find the most Halloween icons in our grid. Kids get 1 try per 10 minutes of reading, up to a maximum of 6 tries per day.

Halloween Treasure Hunt

How to play our Halloween Treasure Hunt

  1. If you don’t already have an account, sign up for a free account on Reading-Rewards.com
  2. Make sure you spend some quiet time reading, and then sign in to your account on Reading-Rewards.com, and log some reading time! Not sure how? Here’s how to use our online reading log!
  3. Make sure that your reading gets validated (unless your reading gets automatically validated, your parents will receive and email asking them to approve your reading time!)
  4. Click on Fun and Games, and click on the Halloween Race button
  5. Click on a slot where you think you’ll find a Halloween surprise!Halloween Treasure Hunt
  6. Remember, the more you read, the more tries you’ll earn!

Happy Reading, and Happy Halloween!!!

Reading-Rewards.com is an online reading incentive/reading log website that can be found at www.reading-rewards.com. Kids log their reading time, and are invited to review their books once they’ve finished them. Once their reading entries get validated by a parent (optional), their minutes get converted to points (RR Miles) they can use to redeem for rewards that their parents or teachers set up for them. A full set of features allow teachers to set up […]

By |October 5th, 2011|Reading Rewards|0 Comments
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