Jude will be heading to his first year of full day Kindergarten in about a week – eek!! Two things about that sentence; how is summer break almost over and how is Jude already in full day school? Seriously life, SLOW DOWN! Now, I have never been the crying mom on the first day of school but for some reason this transition hits a little harder in the heart. But I am so excited for the amazing progress our big guy has made over the summer. One of the areas of progress that we have really enjoyed seeing is his reading skills. It is so fun to walk through the store and hear him read things on packages. The first time he did it I was so surprised and proud.
I cannot wait to take his next first day of school picture, goodness he has grown a lot in a year! His love for reading has also grown. Both Jude and Teagan have always enjoyed being read to, they simply love books. Whenever we have some time to kill or down time they both immediately find a book from our many bookshelves or baskets. I want to make sure that love of reading continues now that he is able to read to himself.
Before I go any further I want to bring up something I learned at a scholastic conference a year ago – when I heard this I really stopped to think about how we want to continue to teach Jude and Teagan as they get older.
“One of the biggest mistakes when teaching your child to read is stopping the act of reading to or with your child after they have mastered the skill of reading.”
Oh my gosh – YES!! Reading is such an accomplishment but the act of sitting and reading with your child has so many other important values and moments. Since we were talking about reading, I wanted to drop that into our conversation.
As I was preparing for our upcoming daily lunch packing I decided to head to Sam’s Club to pick up a few necessities. Honestly, I think Jude is more excited about having a packed lunch to eat at school than actually attending school this year. So funny, I think when we figures out that a full day means not going to grandma and grandpas for afternoon fun he might be a little sad. But until then, I am loving this lunch excitement. It is giving me inspiration and motivation to give him some fun lunches through out the year.
Sam’s Club has a number of great lunchbox items that I know I will be adding to my grocery list for Jude’s lunches. A few essentials that I picked up include Jif Creamy Peanut Butter and Smuckers Strawberry Jam. By the way, if you have any great lunchbox ideas please pass them to me! I would love some fun but EASY ideas to make Jude smile when he opens his lunchbox at school.
As we jump into the new school year I know that our busy lifestyle, goodbye carefree summertime, we will need to really keep that reading inspiration going for Jude. To Start School Like a Champion we decided to let Jude really start seeing the amazing reading work he is doing by keeping a reading log. I made a simple printable Reading Log that he could write his name on and then keep a running list of the books he has read on his own.
We are not sure what his “homework” will look like this year but this will be something that we continue to use through out the year just give him a little more motivation to keep on using that reading brain. I left spaces for 6 books – Jude is 6 – with every list he completes we will let him go to the book store and pick out a new book. He loves that idea!
Sam’s Club is partnering with Scholastic this fall to help spread the love of reading to your family and schools. Check out this great program!
Start school like a champion! Get two free Scholastic books– one for yourself and one to donate to a local school – when you buy any participating Kellogg’s® or J.M. Smucker product at Sam’s Club®. Products must be purchased now thru 9/30/16, while supplies last! Over 80 full-length Scholastic titles to choose from for beginning readers to teens!
How to Redeem your free books:
Buy any participating Kellogg’s or The J.M. Smucker Company product by 9/30/2016
Oh my goodness, it feels like forever since my girls were this young. Though, I do remember preparing them for school. These are great tips. I'm going to print these for my daughter to use at home with our granddaughter. She will appreciate them for sure.
I can't believe school starts again in just a few weeks. The kids are ready to go back to school and start in their new classrooms. I will miss them though. Thanks for sharing this super useful printable- it will come in handy!
Oh I love summer reading! I remember when my son was little we would complete summer reading logs for his school and he would get a reward once school started. Thanks for this awesome printable!
I don't yet have kids but I agree it is so important to teach kids how to read early on and to foster that interest. It's nice that your kids love reading anyway.
Aw Congratulations to Jude on Kindergarten – and to you for getting him to this point! This is a wonderful program. I am a huge fan of any brand that will promote reading. Will definitely print this out for my stepdaughter. She'll probably think she's too old for it, but we're NEVER too old to read!
I love a good printable, these are great! Keeping track of reading is a great way to encourage kids to read more. I love setting up challenges to set a goal for them to reach. Thanks for sharing!
Jude's back to school picture is too cute! I love that you put all of that information on there! It's definitely easier to keep track of one lone photo versus random papers that I decide to write the information on! Thanks for the printable, too!
Oh my goodness, it feels like forever since my girls were this young. Though, I do remember preparing them for school. These are great tips. I'm going to print these for my daughter to use at home with our granddaughter. She will appreciate them for sure.
I can't believe school starts again in just a few weeks. The kids are ready to go back to school and start in their new classrooms. I will miss them though. Thanks for sharing this super useful printable- it will come in handy!
Oh I love summer reading! I remember when my son was little we would complete summer reading logs for his school and he would get a reward once school started. Thanks for this awesome printable!
I don't yet have kids but I agree it is so important to teach kids how to read early on and to foster that interest. It's nice that your kids love reading anyway.
Aw Congratulations to Jude on Kindergarten – and to you for getting him to this point! This is a wonderful program. I am a huge fan of any brand that will promote reading. Will definitely print this out for my stepdaughter. She'll probably think she's too old for it, but we're NEVER too old to read!
This is a great idea to keep track of their reading! My son is going into SK and although he can't read, he knows many words and loves to 'read!'
I love a good printable, these are great! Keeping track of reading is a great way to encourage kids to read more. I love setting up challenges to set a goal for them to reach. Thanks for sharing!
Jude's back to school picture is too cute! I love that you put all of that information on there! It's definitely easier to keep track of one lone photo versus random papers that I decide to write the information on! Thanks for the printable, too!
I can't believe school is already here! I've loved my little girl and I's summer reading progress we've made together! Awesome printable too!
This is such a cool idea! I don't have kids yet but this is something my nephew and my sister would love. Thank you so much for sharing this! 😀