Every summer, I try to do something to motivate my kids to read. I know, some folks are against using incentives for reading, but I’m not. I once even paid my kids $.25 for each book they read, back when they were just getting into reading. My daughter started to really love books then, and she made some money, too! In the past, I have made “caterpillars” to go around the room – each circle of the caterpillar’s body was a book read. I’ve enrolled them in summer reading programs at different libraries and even in a program sponsored by our local grocery store when we lived in Texas. Every system has worked! In each incentive program my kids were motivated to read and they did just that. 

This year, we are flying butterflies around our house! I’m calling it, “Summer Reading Makes My Heart Flutter!” We are putting up one butterfly for each book read by the kids, with the title, author, and child who read it, marked on it. I read aloud to my two li’l girls. 🙂 We have eight butterflies so far, and we’ve only been going a week! 🙂 We can’t wait to see the room with colorful butterflies going all the way around! (I hope I have enough!)