Exciting Changes Coming Soon!

Some of you may have noticed a different look to our blog as well as our Facebook page. Over the past few months, Carole and I have been working very hard on a brand-new version of Reading-Rewards that we will be rolling out on May 25th, 2013!

New Reading Rewards

 

It’s been a phenomenal year, with our user numbers tripling since 2012. To accomodate all our new readers, we have optimized the site and moved it to a new server. We will also be introducing some exciting enhancements. Here are just a few:

    • Faster, faster, faster! We have recoded some of the key elements of the site which has resulted in much speedier performance overall. This should be a huge improvement in 2013-2014!
    • A much prettier, re-designed user interface, with many more online hints and tips. Reading Rewards will be a lot easier to use and understand for our young members! What’s more, we have used something called responsive design, which means that it will not only work but also look great on iPads and other tablets.
    • An awesome RR Store with something for everyone! In addition to customized rewards from parents/teachers/librarians, kids will also be able to buy a Joke of the Day, a Video of the Day, or a Raffle Ticket from Reading-Rewards that could win them a real prize! We will soon being holding monthly raffles, with some great prizes. What’s more, our store looks GREAT.

The new RR Store

By |May 9th, 2013|Reading Rewards|0 Comments
Read More

Top picks for your kids this holiday season

dear santaNovember isn’t even over and one of my younger son’s favorite activities of late is ‘working on his Christmas list’. This involves browsing the websites of ToysRUs, Amazon, BestBuy and other online retailers for the best of the best in electronics and gaming. Sigh!

Not surprising.

A recent Nielsen poll suggests that 44% of kids in the US want an iPad for Christmas.

what kids want for ChristmasSo I suppose in a way I should consider myself lucky that the top item on my son’s list is something called Skylanders…

Although they may not realize it while they are working on their lists, Lady Montagu put if perfectly when she said, in 1752:

“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. She will not want new fashions nor regret the loss of expensive diversions or variety of company if she can be amused with an author in her closet.”

Yes somehow, unwrapping books, no matter how enticing they may be, pales in comparison to the shiny electronic gadgets, DVDs, and video games.

MotherReader has some great ideas over on her blog, including ways to wrap a book, and 105 ways to give a book. You must check them out for inspiration, I know I will! There is nothing I love more than browsing my local bookstore for great picks for my kids, but I’ll be looking for some creative ways to make them stand out amidst Mario and all the rest.

You’ll also find great inspiration over at The Book Chook, where Susan has brought together literacy-related holiday inspiration from around the kid lit blogosphere.

No […]

By |November 22nd, 2011|Book recommendations|0 Comments
Read More

Top picks for a reluctant reader boy

We’ve had a couple of reading a-ha moments lately that I just had to share. While my older guy has gotten hooked on The Hunger Games trilogy (he’s reading Mockingjay at the moment), and finishes any book he starts whether he enjoys it or not as a matter of principle, my younger guy often flits from book to book. Starting many, finishing few.

(In case you’re interested in The Hunger Games,  check out the new trailer that’s just been released!)

Back to my younger guy. Lately we’ve hit on a few books that he’s thoroughly enjoyed (and finished!), so I feel it is safe to call them top picks for reluctant reader boys. Here they are!

NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society (Book One)

NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society (Book One) Michael Buckley 

He’s about half-way through this first book, and keeps coming to find me to describe where he’s at, and what new, funny think has just happened to Jackson, one of the main characters. To me, that is huge: not only is he enjoying reading it, but it is something he wants to share, as well. Yess!  Check out the review from Amazon.

Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book (Tom Angleberger)

My guy enjoyed the Origami Yoda follow up even more than the original, and that’s saying a lot! The bonus instructions for folding your own darth paper were a huge hit, too! Check out the review from Amazon.

Big Nate: In […]

By |November 14th, 2011|Book recommendations, Reluctant readers|2 Comments
Read More

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
Read More

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
Read More

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
Read More

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
Read More

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
Read More
  • 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
Read More

Security Enhancement – Private Reading Groups

We’re happy to announce a security enhancement on our Reading-Rewards.com reading groups, that has been rolled out today, September 13, 2011.

Your kids’/students’ security is our top priority.

We have added privacy setting on reading groups, which will allow you to make your groups completely private. If you enable this setting, before being able to view or join your group, users will be asked to provide a security code that is unique to your group.

If they fail to do so, they will not be able to view any information about your group.

We strongly recommend that you change the security setting on your reading group by doing the following:

  1. Log on to Reading Rewards
  2. Access your group’s page from the ‘Groups’ tab
  3. Click on the ‘Edit Group’ button
  4. Set ‘Secure group with a code’ to ‘Yes’
  5. Take note of the security code (randomly generated) to hand out to any new students that wish to join your group

This does not affect current group members, nor does it affect students that you created and added to your group yourself. This only affects future members of your group that wish to join you on their own.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Happy Reading!

The Reading Rewards Team

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 […]

By |September 13th, 2011|Reading Rewards|0 Comments
Read More