1- I ordered this cookbook and it is awesome:
We already have some of Jessica’s recipes on heavy rotation at our house (this salad; this pasta) so I ordered this pretty much the moment I saw it. There are SOOO many good (and reasonably easy looking) recipes in there!
I probably buy 1-2 cookbooks a year and tend to keep them for a long time and am excited to have this one in my “next to the toaster oven” collection.
2- Invisalign update: I haven’t mentioned this in a while! Probably because I’m now used to it and honestly, it doesn’t really bother me. I’m a very good patient so far (generally exceed the “22 hours in” rec, except on nights we go out to eat or podcasting days when I’m still over 20!).
I am on tray 4 of 43 (!!!) and therefore have 500+ days to go, so just embracing it as new normal. Bonus is that my kids understand the importance of wearing their retainers.
The most annoying part is having to brush my teeth after eating in weird place sometimes (airport bathroom?) but I’m already kind of used to it.
3- NEW random things I am tracking on paper: I added a section in my daily notebook for “checks” to track email and other phone checks, and I added a section to write down anything financial (even though I also put everything in YNAB). Will I stick with this forever? Not necessarily but it’s kind of fun. I have also been writing down some quotes from my AM reading.
I may be a convert to Stalogy (because I love having a 2 page spread to play with every day plus a timeline) from Hobonichi forever. I KNOW. (But I can always rationalize using a Weeks, or another 5-year, or an A6 for journaling or something like that!).
4- Reading this for book club (just realized there were two releases with this title in 2025 – hopefully I am reading the right one).
So far I like it. (Trigger warning for infertility.)
5- I need to do a seasonal meeting with the kids pre-summer, I think. I mentioned our NH trip to a kid this morning and they had forgotten that we were traveling in June (and definitely did not remember the destination of NH). I am not sure they get the same positive anticipatory feelings that I do about upcoming travel, but maybe I can at least get some interest and have them provide feedback on the itinerary before things are solidified.
I also want them to do some thinking about how they will incorporate more reading this summer (this will be good for all 3) and am thinking about some kind of incentive where we reward them somehow for books completed. Would that take away from the joy? Or make it more enticing? Both?
Incidentally, I grew up without rewards for anything (“the good grade is its own reward” is a phrase that I feel like I may have heard once or twice). I still was pretty driven (though reading I did just because I wanted to!). I was kind of jealous of friends who got paid for good grades! We don’t do that in our house but I kind of see the rationale in some cases. Thoughts welcome!
19 Comments
When I was a kid, we had the Book-It program where you’d get a Pizza Hut personal pizza for reading a certain number of books, and also our library had a summer reading program where you could earn little prizes (like stickers, little plastic toys, etc.) for reading. Both were fun, and I don’t think either turned reading into a chore (I still love reading, and am only out of the habit now because of my phone and news stress). I think I probably would have read without the prizes, but it’s always nice to get rewarded for something you enjoy anyway.
My kids are similar ages. We don’t offer money for grades or reading but definitely have had good luck with other incentives. This is the first year we have incentivized grades—my oldest just has a LOT of schoolwork and my middle was unmotivated so they needed some “encouragement.” For us, that means if they do what we consider well at report card time, they get to go out to a dinner of their choosing and pick a book at a bookstore—both of these are big deals at my house and have HIGHLY motivated them. Seriously we could see a grade improvement immediately once we made this “deal.” We plan to do something similar with summer reading and what I am setting as summer reading goals. (I plan to let them choose their own reading but it needs to be reasonably challenging for them.)
Like most things in parenting, I think knowing their “currency” or something that is important to them is great for both rewards and punishments.
Would any of them be motivated by a public library summer reading program? I’m a teen librarian and our program involves tracking days of reading to earn small rewards like free ice cream. Could be worth seeing what’s offered in your area!
Seconding the recommendation about looking into what summer reading programs your library has going on. My local library has different programs by age and they do have rewards depending on what “level” you get to. Some of the rewards are pretty cool, like tickets to Rays games or Busch Gardens!
Oh, my goodness, you didn’t have the Pizza Hut Book It! program? I mean, I would have read the books anyway, but it was nice to be recognized for it with free pizza!
Seriously, I don’t think rewards have to be huge, or even cost anything, to be effective. One year our elementary principal said that if we sent her a picture of our child with a book they had read, she would post them on the school’s Facebook parent page. Mine was so excited about reading books that summer so she could be on Facebook!
I like the library summer reading program, as well as the idea to keep going to the library and/or bookstore in regular rotation. Bonus: our library offers adult summer reading programs that you might be interested in!
I nag my child to read every day and have done so for the past several years. It has worked reasonably well, and I plan to stick with the plan over the summer! She gets to pick out and buy her own books using the kindle I got her. If she won’t read in her room, she sits with me on the couch and we read together.
I can’t say anything helped me read more over the summer when I was a teen and my parents kind of gave up so I… didn’t read at all for YEARS. Going to the library didn’t help. Having people suggest books didn’t help. Taking away privileges didn’t help. Thus, I justify my current approach with my daughter telling myself that she’s going to read whether she enjoys it or not, while giving her the tools to pick out books she might like.
My newest food obsession is “That’s not cooking, that’s just mixing things” on TikTok which… honestly I wish this guy had been around when I was in my 20s. Highly recommend!
Do you pay for the books your daughter buys? Is there a budget or limitless? Pondering this!
Yes I pay. I find the library difficult to deal with and don’t read at a pace sufficient for that system to work for me either so I buy my books as well. She bought one book on kindle this month so $15? Sometimes she reads my leftovers but we have different tastes. She hasn’t gotten to a point where the expense has been what I consider to be excessive yet. I guess we will cross that bridge if and when that happens.
I read the required books for school … sort of, but nothing more than that for years. My father was a huge reader and autodidact. He was always giving me books (which I never read) but was wise enough (or just busy enough with othwr stuff?) that it was never a point of tension or shame. I was also a fairly poor student until 9th grade, but at some point I decided to get my s*** together and ended up graduating valedictorian of my class and going to an ivy League college. Around the summer between first and second year I started reading for myself, and I still read a lot. I truly don’t know if this turn around would have happened if I had been pressured by my parents. I know I would have scorned sticker charts and the like, but kids (people) are different, and for some this can be a total motivator. Ironically, I find myself putting way more pressure on my kids to read than I was ever subjected to ( they also dont do it for fun, and school assigns next to nothing). It has mostly been like you describe: they are supposed to find something to read and do it for at least a bit, whether they enjoy it or not. It sometimes works. I dont know whether or not this is good, but just “modeling” reading and offering cheerful encouragement have not worked, and I just cant stand to see them reading….nothing.
I was super self motivated, but still got paid and it was a nice reward, but not necessarily an incentive if that makes sense.
What about having the reward be $ to spend at a local bookstore? That way the reward reinforces the habit. I think I am going to institute some daily reading time for my daughter, but plan to pair this with frequent library and bookstore trips so that hopefully there is a lot she wants to read.
In addition to your library, our half price books and other book stores offer summer reading incentive programs.
Everyone seems to have different success rates with rewards programs, so I don’t know if there’s one right answer. I would make the reward be something bookish, like a trip to Barnes and Noble (you could throw ice cream in there too while you’re at it!) If you say “if you read five books you get a pizza” then I think the kids who already love to read will think it’s fun, and the kids who aren’t so into it, will be reinforced in their belief that reading is a chore- obviously it’s something unpleasant if they have to be bribed to do it with pizza. My daughter is not a reader (sob!) but my son wasn’t either at her age, and he’s come back to it as an adult- so there’s always hope.
It is funny how you can be so focused on an upcoming event or trip, and then you realize the kids have no idea what’s going on. I’ve literally had a kid say “Where are we going again?” as we’re getting in the car. NOT for a big vacation, I should specify- more like a day trip. A family meeting is probably a good idea!
funny story – the other day one of my colleagues (who i love) was going on a family trip like THE NEXT DAY and I asked her where and she said “i forget something like North Carolina or something”. Her husband had planned it all and she just wasn’t worried about any of the specifics! It cracked me up!!
I did a summer reading challenge with my oldest last year where he could earn a pair of AirPods, and I would absolutely do it again. The key to it being so useful in the long-term was not the number of books that he read, but the variety that he was willing to try. We found a reading list from the Week Junior magazine that had several different categories of books, including categories he doesn’t often read. He read 30 books over the summer—5 of them were his choice, and the other 25 were from the list. Since then he has branched out and read even more of those authors— without any added incentive.
My daughter just recently requested to do her own reading challenge, and asked as her reward a simple play date with a friend. No-brainer!
My kids have loved out local public library summer reading program. Free book and small prizes, and they have a drawing for a few larger prizes. My son won the Airpods pro last year!
that is a serious prize!!! wow!
I don’t know if reward would incentive reading or not. I was a huge reader. HUGE. (Still am.) Nobody ever made me do it- I just loved reading! When I was in college, one of my roommates looked up and saw me reading a non-assigned book, and she said, “You know, one summer my parents promised me $5 for every book I read. I never once earned that $5.” GURL. If I got $5 for every book I read, I could have retired in my teens.