We were doing really good, until I got sick with my pregnancy. I need to start a new self challenge in the next few weeks once stuff settles down with baby.
Keep up the good work guys!!
WaterDreamer!
Congrats, congrats, congrats!
Hope you are feeling better
We have sort of modified the book challenge a bit for my toddler…first off, she is a toddler…so she wants new books read over, and over, and over, and over…you get the picture!!!
So I bought a beautifully-bound journal and simply use it to record ALL of the books we read at nap time and bedtime ( and maybe a note or two about daily progress/happenings as I am hopeless at updating the babybook lol )
The best bit? Since I know that I am keeping this for her, I can note her favorites, track how many books we read new and repeated, and how many she read to me!
And since I know that she might read it as a mom? Huge incentive to read that extra book! We are already at over 1300, and we started Jan 15th (although as she is just 2, I would bet the supreme difference in lenth between what many of you are reading makes a whole lot of difference! Still, we have been averaging about 15-20 books per day, not including bits and bobs outside of nap/bedtime!
Right now her absolute favorite is Stand Back Said the Elephant, I am Going to Sneeze! By Patricia Thomas, and all of the Lynley Dodd books (I can’t thank you enough Taniket for the recommendation as they ate not very popular in the US, but have fantastic vocabulary!)
I have been specifically hunting down books with rich Vocabulary. I decided we were all getting a bit lazy ( especially me as the primary book selector 
) and not challenging our thaughts enough. This past month we are stuck in Fancy Nancy mode, reading a few short stories ( only short by comparison to the original!) adapted from older books like ‘The blue fairy’ and the ‘green fairy’. They retain the rich vocabulary but simplify the story so all three kids can understand it. We have relied on original fairy tales ( I have a massive set of those!) when we run out of library books.
My non fiction commitment is going very well, we are working our way through Osborne’s Children Encyclopedia and many copies of the 100 facts books. the kids are really enjoying this, plus I can start reading while they are still getting ready for bed as the non fiction reads tend to involve more conversation and less looking at pictures.
We are right on track to easily hit the 1000 books. We dropped a bit because we don’t get home until late 2 night a week. I try to make up those days by reading while they have a bath. Or having Natalya read to them before school and on the way to school. She is a great story teller!
Great to here all your suggestions, and efforts. Kimba and waterdreamer, a conscious effort for just 2 weeks will probably catch you up. 3 books for each meal… 9-15 per day!
I did not officially join challenge, but I did feel inspired to write down the books we read this year. That has been eye opening to me. As it is said, “Numbers don’t lie.” I did discover that when I have a lot of new books around the house my 5 year old will spend hours reading to herself. It has been a challenge to keep lots of great books around, since our library doesn’t have the best selection. I did come across the book The New Your Times Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children. I like book lists. I was thrilled to see that we have not read very many books listed. We can request most of the books through our library, and have been reading massive amounts of books lately because of the selection. We haven’t loved them all, but we have discovered some new favorites and we are not even half-way through the list. Does anybody else have any lists of books their children enjoyed or lists of best books? Thanks for the recommendations, Keri. I just reserved some books based on your post. We may make it to 1000 books this year, but if we don’t, we have been reading a lot more. Keep it the good work, everyone! You are all an inspiration.
I think I want to set up a challenge like this too.
James is only 2.5. We reread a lot. It takes him several times to understand and remember a book. And I read to him above age level. So I have to take time out to explain certain things. We could certainly do well over 1500 books a year if we were to stick with simple picture books, or stuff levlelled for a toddler. But we don’t. 
Instead I think I am going to continue on with the reading challenge that we are doing over the summer, that we started through our local library.
Over 6 weeks in the summer we have set a goal to read 2500 hours. Books can be repeated, reading James does alone can be counted.
once this challenge is done I think I will set a challenge to read something like 300-500 hours a year.
We read at least an hour a day by default. 30 mintues before nap, 30 mintues before bed time at night. Then there is the extra reading. Reading for fun throughoutt the day, the reading that daddy does. And the reading that is involved as part of James’ reading instruction. So maybe 500 hours a year is a nice goal.
Okay I have done it!! I am back in front and I just hit this months target today which is 498 books. I have comeback from being 85 behind to about 37 books in front. Holding me in good stead for the next month when I go in to have all 4 wisdom teeth out so I may miss up to weeks worth of reading to them. So I will keep on trojing ahead and I will let you know what I finish on at the end of the month.
Oh and I have not been cheating I have been reading proper chapter books and picture books with alot of words my voice is very hoarse.
Awesome effort! I am very impressed. Oh and a horse voice can be quite becoming lol For the wisdom teeth we could let you cheat and use audio books…but only if you sit with child and finger under the words :biggrin:
im very lucky and my dad and stepmum are taking the girls for the weekend so I can get some proper rest. :yes: Hooray. So I plan on being in front…
I only have one audio book which is a pooh one. Maybe I can play that over and over again. lol
What I would love is some french audio books do you know where i can find them???
You probably mentioned this somewhere, but how many books do you need to read a day to maintain your pace?
1000 books in one year is 2.77 books a day. Easy enough…the tricky bit is catching up when you fall off the wagon. Have 3 days off and you need to read 11 books in that next day to catch up! We read 3 every day usually at bedtime, so we creep ahead. Somedays we sit down and read 6-8 books we got fresh from the library. Thats how I make sure we stay ahead of the target. I am to lazy to list all the books we read, so each time we read I ask the kids “how many books did we read yesterday?” then we all know we are on track If they dissagree on how many we assume the lower number as they figured out that means they get an extra bedtime story! lol
Of course if you are aiming fo 1500 books a year then you better read morning and night, to get to your 5 books a day. If you have two reading sessions a day 5 books isnt hard to hit. You will notice an increase in your childs vocabulary understanding from this challenge, but of course that is just one of many benefits
French Audio…I have never looked. my local library would have some but a limited number i am sure. SO who on the forum is in France? 
Hi Kimba
Try this website. It has both individual sellers and professionals.
http://www.priceminister.com/nav/Livres_Enfant-jeunesse/kw/livre+audio
If they don’t ship to Oz, then try the UK version
www.priceminister.co.uk
How are you guys doing with the challenge?
I held off joining this challenge as, until recently, my 2 1/2 year old daughter only wanted me to read familiar books but she is suddenly showing an interest in new books - yay! I’ve been counting the number of books for the last 5 days & we are at 65! My rules are fairly simple, I’m counting every book we read once, repeated readings don’t count.
We’re doing just OK. Not always up to three new books a day due to curcumstances (all our reading is done at bedtime and we often end up going to bed very late or Mum has a headache by then :unsure: )
We are still in. We got a late start and we do not have a set number of books in mind to read. This has just inspired us to write down what we read. I do not count the same book in the same month, but after a few months my DD was getting some of the same books at the library, so if they are in different months, I count them. So far this has been very interesting to watch what we read and how much we read.
I’ve started using the free ireadit app to record the books - it’s so motivating to see the number go up. All you have to do is scan the barcode & the book details are stored in your phone. There are lots of other similar apps, this was just the first one I tried.
HI everyone!
A New Year of learning, time to close the 2012 challenge.
We did OK, averaging 3 books a day, whether chapter books, digital books, picture books.
We didn’t manage to read 1500 different ones thought, but I’m glad we read in two languages and that my daughter likes books without pictures.
Very interesting to see her learn the meaning of new words.
Have a great year everyone!
(admin, can you please close this thread?)