Your child should have a folder that looks like this:
Inside the folder is a reading chart where the minutes read each day of the week can be recorded. Children can win prizes according to how many minutes they've read. All we have to do is keep track of how much time they read and record it in the folder. Easy, peasy, right?
In theory, yes. In reality, not so much.
Monday morning often finds us scrambling to find the folders, struggling to remember how many minutes we read last week ("Are you sure you read on Saturday?"), and vowing to do better the next week.
If you're in the same fix, here's a few ideas to help with keeping track of reading minutes:
1) Ask your child to keep track. This is especially effective if you incentivize the process a little. Drop a Skittle (or other small candy) into a jar for every 10 minutes read and award the loot at the end of the week. Your child will be more likely to inform you of his/her time spent reading if there's candy on the line. This could also be done with marbles or stickers.
2) Use a small piece of paper to record minutes rather than the folder. The folders are bulky and hard to keep handy. A smaller piece of paper (hung on the fridge or a bulleting board) is more readily accessible. Hang it at your child's level so they can record the minutes. Keep the Ken Garff folders in a specific place and pull them out only when it's time to record the minutes and send them back to school.
3) Give your child an inexpensive timer. Setting the time and hearing the ding! can be fun.
4) Set aside a specific time and place to read each day. The consistency will help develop good habits. You can mix things up by reading seasonal (especially holiday) books, reading in the dark with a flashlight, reading out loud, etc.
Do you have other ideas that have worked for you? Leave them as comments!
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