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Summer Literacy Program

"You belong to a church that teaches the importance of education. You have a mandate from the Lord to educate your minds and your hearts and your hands. . . . There can be no doubt, none whatever, that education pays. Do not short-circuit your lives. If you do so, you will pay for it over and over and over again."
—Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Prophet’s Counsel and Prayer for Youth,” Ensign, Jan. 2001, 4, 7

We have done the summer reading program every summer for the last I think 4 years or so, this year we wanted to take it up a notch, so we changed it to the Summer Literacy Program

Here is what we had on our flyer we handed out the week we introduced the program

Parents please encourage your children to read new books, not reread books that they read all the time. Go to the library, it's FREE

Children under 12 need to earn at least 100 points per week
Each page read is worth 1 point
Each page of a Church magazine read is worth 2 points each
Each page of Scriptures read worth 2 points each
Each entry made in your journal is worth 2 points each
For every Poem you write or every page you write in a original story you earn 5 points
You can earn 10 points a day for each day you have NO screen time (TV, Video / computer games, DVD's etc)

Everyone over 12 needs to earn at least 200 points per week
Each page read is worth 1 point
Each page of a Church magazine read is worth 2 points each
Each page of Scriptures read, is worth 2 points each
Each page you write in your journal it is worth 10 points each
For every 1 page you write based on your family history you can earn 20 points
For every Poem you write or every page you write in a original story you earn 10 points
You can earn 10 points a day for each day you have NO screen time (TV, Video / computer games, DVD's etc)

Record your points weekly for a treat (kids need to have a signature of a parent).
We will be keeping a tally all summer long, so watch the bulletin board by the Bishops office for the progress of our ward.
Slips to record points, are available at the library. Blue for under 12 and Yellow for 12 and over
Pick up your treat when you turn in your slip, starting next week, by the library.

ALWAYS WANTED TO BE PUBLISHED? This fall we will be putting together a Book of Poems and Stories written by members of our ward, if you would like to contribute something you have written; poems, stories fiction or non-fiction, please turn those in to ____________

"Education has, of necessity, become a lifelong pursuit. We must, in our scheduling of time, allot sufficient time to educate ourselves for now and for the future."
—L. Tom Perry, “If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 36

Other thoughts.................

THE PRIZES: The last few years we have given out small (like Halloween size) candy, a sucker a candy bar etc. But this year I want to change and give out candy one week and then a small prize the next, I am think the small prizes will  be something like a red pencil............ I am not sure on that, I can get them through the church for .20 each, that is high, but it might be fun for  the LAST weeks prize, so maybe a sticker, or something SMALL, I have to think, you know what I just thought of, I might have homemade cookies one week, hummm any ideas!

POINTS: As for the points, we total them up and then we give out a "GRAND" prize to the to male and female in the following categories, Jr Primary, Sr Primary, YW/YM, RS/Priesthood, we have given out KING Size Candy Bar's, a book, gift
certificate to Desert Book,

We are also, are going to hang a poster board on the bulletin board in the hallway and show the progress of how many page the members of the ward have read, how many times they have written in their journal, stuff like that. I want to set a goal for "pages read" but I am not sure how many to set, we are still thinking about that, hummmm lets see if our ward has about 300
people and only half participate and each person reads 100 pages a week, then we should be able to reach 150,000 with NO problem, does that sound  crazy??

Any ideas??