The Toy Box Years: Summer Reading Challenge

The Creators of the Toy Box Years

The creators of the Toy Box Years are my two beautiful daughters and wonderful, handsome soldier husband.

"Nani" (our oldest) is a 11 year old 6th grader who loves Taylor Swift, ballet, books, fashion designing and sewing. Ask her what she wants to be when she grows up and it changes daily to anything from "an artist" to "a teacher" to "a singer/dancer". Nani is also currently fighting a battle against brain cancer -- recently diagnosed in June 2016.

"Nudgie" (our youngest) is a very smiley, very happy, very giggly, very spirited 8 year old 3rd Grader who's favorite toys are anything that gives mommy an anxiety attack - ladders, stepstools, the climbing wall at the playground. Like her sister, she has a love of reading and coloring, loves gymnastics and still provides mommy lots of snuggle time!

"My Marine" is my high school sweetheart. We've been married over 20 years and met when we were 17. (You do the math....) His favorite toys are Blackhawk helicopters, the lawnmower, our steam cleaner, and microbrew beer bottles. My husband is also my hero in that he proudly serves his country as a Blackhawk crew chief (hence his favorite toy!). And need I say that there is nothing hotter than my man in uniform!

All About Me......

Once upon a time I had a career and worked in the corporate world. Once upon a time, I dreamed about leaving that all behind to follow my true calling -- being a wife and mommy.

The first part of my calling was fulfilled in 1995 when I married my Marine (now soldier) and my love. Little did I know that being a military wife would change me in so many ways and that because of that, I would have an extended family all over the world from Japan, to California, to North Carolina.

The second part of my calling took a little doing, but I finally achieved that dream in 2004 with the birth of our first child, followed 4 years later by her baby sister.

So now, when someone asks me what I do for a living - I simply smile and say proudly that I'm following my calling - I'm a mommy and a wife -- and I couldn't be HAPPIER -- I'm living in the Toy Box Years!!

This summer we're doing a summer reading challenge with Nani and Nudgie. Both my girls LOVE books, so this should be pretty easy and enjoyable.

Our two libraries both offer summer reading challenges, so I signed up the girls for both of those. I also found a lot of reading challenges online as well.

Barnes and Noble has a great Summer Reading Challenge and is also awarding a free book once you read any 8 books.

Scholastic has a Summer Reading Challenge as well, but I found the site to be a bit tedious to navigate. The challenge is for ages 7 and up, which I found to be disappointing. But overall, I still like Scholastic and their programs!

Borders is also offering a Summer Reading Challenge for children ages 12 and under. This challenge will award a free book for 10 books read.

To help Nani and Nudgie keep track of what they read, I made this reading chart for them.

All the supplies were bought at the Dollar Tree (poster board, bulletin board border) and I just printed out "What I'm Reading" on my computer. Also at the Dollar Tree, I bought two sets of cute little name tags - one with crayons and one with stars. Each of the girls has their own name tag. So whenever we read a book, we'll write the name of the book on the name tag and stick it on our reading chart!

So, we're headed off to the library this morning to stock up on books and get started!

Happy Reading!

7 comments:

Christy Killoran June 3, 2010 at 6:39 AM: We are participating in a few summer reading programs too. I like your chart. I think I will have to make one too!
Annette W. June 3, 2010 at 7:15 AM: I just posted about this yesterday! I like your chart...great for little ones!
One Photo June 3, 2010 at 1:16 PM: Our library does a summer reading program too, I love the idea of it. I really like your charts, your girls are lucky to have such a creative and enthusiastic Mom and supporter!
Melanie June 3, 2010 at 5:59 PM: What a great idea! Makes summer reading easy, and fun!

We also encourage reading especially before bedtime. Hope my boys will continue this routine on their summer vacation! :)
Unknown June 3, 2010 at 6:47 PM: great blog, I love reading to my lil guy. I found you from Faith Deployed's FB page
Anonymous June 3, 2010 at 11:09 PM: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sara June 4, 2010 at 12:05 AM: We're participating in our summer reading program at the library too - but I was not aware of B& N and Borders - thanks for that info!