On your mark, get set,...Read!

My kids just finished up the summer reading program put forth by my town's public library. This year the theme was "On your mark, get set....READ!" It had to do with being physically active as well as reading and exercising your mind! 

This is the first year that we have been able to make our schedules work and attend most of the activities that the library puts on. 

The first week, they had a singer Tom Sieling who performed a program called " Take a Tromp through the Swamp." He was entertaining and the kids enjoyed his performance. (I found a youtube video so you can see who he is.)
 


The following week they had our local Children's museum- SPI Spot- there, with stations of different science activities for the kids to do that were focused on kinetic science. The kids had a blast doing all the different activities.

On June 16, they hosted the Newport Aquarium Wave on Wheels Shark Encounter, where the kids learned about epaulette sharks. (I blogged about it here.)  

The last 2 weeks they have had library day at the movies, where they teamed with our local theater and showed "The Croods." and they had a local magician. We did not attend either activities. The week of the movie we had other plans already in place and the week of the magician, the kids did not get to attend as they were being punished for their behavior the night before. 

We had their end of the program party recently. The library had some stations of exercise set up for the kids to go through including a burpee station, jump rope station, basketball and soccer stations, and a plank station. The kids had fun going through the different stations. 

The kids got to take their completed reading records and they received several coupons (for a free taco from Taco Bell, 50% off camping costs, and $4 off our state fair admission), a sticker and they got to pick out a brand new book for them to keep. Jacob chose a "Paw Patrol" coloring book. Rebecca chose a "Big Nate" book and Benjamin of course chose a "Thomas the Train" book.

Overall, it was a good way to get them reading more (not that I have to force them to read as they all love to read!) and getting out in our community doing free activities.