Reading Website that I Love!

We have been using this internet reading program for about a month now. It's a little tricky to get the hang of at first and I highly recommend watching the tutorial. But the kids figured it out just fine and way quicker than I did, so it may just be that I am getting old...

http://www.reading-rewards.com/get-kids-reading.html

You set up your school (or household) including yourself, (the dog, the cat, etc. if you want). Next you create a challenge for the whole family and set an end date. I set ours up for a year but any length of time is good. I chose 1,000,000 minutes of reading, but you can set it to number of books read, or pages read, etc. You create whatever prize/reward fits your family. Our prize is dinner at subway.

 

You can also set up multiple mini-challenges that have weekly or monthly deadlines, for the whole family or the individual kids. My older girls must read so many minutes in a week to earn a treat (of their choice, below a certain dollar limit) from Aldis, while Rachel and Samantha must read 4 books in that same week to earn the same treat. I also created a competition for all of them where they have to read 50 books, but it doesn't matter how long it takes them. The first one to complete the 50 books gets to choose a movie from Netflix for all to watch.

They earn "miles" for every minute of reading that is logged. There are games on the website where they use the "miles" they earn. The miles allow them so many turns in games like Code breaker and Battleship. They can compete against everyone else who is signed up on the website (but the only access they have is seeing the first name of the person who won with no links to that person. So there is no chance of bad stuff. I love the safety features of this website!).

There is also a Reading Race that is just within your school (or home). For every 10 minutes of reading the kids (and the parents!) earn a token. This week the tokens are smiley faces. A few weeks ago they were Easter Eggs. The kid with the most tokens at the end of the week wins. They don't win anything concrete, other than bragging rights, which my kids seem to enjoy! I suppose you could make a reward for that too, if you wanted.

The website has some neat features like: Library look-up. The kids put in the title of the book they are reading and it uses Amazon to find the book. It then puts a picture of the book next to their name. When they finish the book they can write a book report on the website and earn extra "miles". You can look at other schools (or households) to see what they are reading and I have found some neat books for the girls that way. There are a bunch of safety features to protect privacy etc. The kids can only interact with others within their group, or with kids outside the group that I approve.

There is a "community" page which lists the top reading groups each day, as well as the top readers (just first names and the only link is a rollover link which lists the last few books read by that kid. Did I mention that I love the safety and security on this website?). The girls love to check and see if Cedars of Lebanon School has made it into the top four groups.

This website would be a great tool not only for public schools to use during the school year (or summer reading challenges), but also for homeschoolers, or even libraries. The need it fulfills for our homeschool is the tracking of which books are read. I like that I can log onto the website and just add the time spent and book titles into our Homeschool Tracker program.

I know there are even more features and neat little things on this website, but I haven't checked them all out yet.

Things I Am Learning

I have been reading through the Old Testament for the last few months. I have never before really read the Old Testament. I have read bits and parts: the books of Genesis, Ruth and Esther, parts of Daniel and Isaiah. But never the whole thing beginning to end.

So I started in August with the goal of getting through the Old Testament in one year. I know, that doesn't sound very ambitious as there are people who read the whole Bible in one year. But I figured that the Old Testament was a lot of tedious stuff, like laws and genealogies, that would take me longer to get through.

I am now into the Book of Judges and I am amazed at how much God has been showing me through these "tedious" scriptures. (I know, I know, I shouldn't be amazed, but I am...) Starting with how exact God is. Reading through the scriptures regarding how the offering of sacrifices, building of the temple, and making of the ark (just for starters) are extremely specific. God had a standard that He expected all His people to follow. And He still does!

This realization has caused me to reflect on how well I am meeting His standard and expectations. And, well, I am not so close to "perfection" as I once thought. God doesn't accept, "good enough". He wants it done right, the first time and the way He says it should be done. (Words I have often said to my kids! "Do it right, the first time, when I say it!") And ignorance doesn't get you off the hook either! There are consequences for sin even if you unintentionally committed it! (Lev. 4:22,27) This has increased my understanding of how much God hates sin and how thankful I am to have a God who forgives me of that sin through His son's death on the cross.

Another thing I have come to realize is how I try to bend God's will to my way of thinking instead of making my will bend to God's. In Numbers 22 -24 is the story of Balak (the king of Moab) and Balaam (a prophet). Balak did not like the Israelites and wanted Balaam to seek God's curse upon them. Balak sent for Balaam to set up an altar and petition God for a curse on Israel. When God gave Balaam a blessing for the Israelites, Balak had Balaam change how he approached God and try again. Three times Balaam changed his approach and three times God pronounced blessings on Israel. Why do I think that if I do "thus and so" God will see it my way? I have always warned my girls of the "magical thinking" mentality that is so prevalant these days in "modern" christianity, and now I see that I am just as guilty of it on a more subtle level.

I am looking forward to what God has for me in the rest of the Old Testament, and who knows, maybe I'll finish in less than a year!