Read-A-Thon

This year my girls' school decided they would only do one fundraiser for the entire year. One chance for the school to raise all the money they would need for extras, instead of selling chocolate, jewelry, etc. They decided to implement a read-a-thon, to not only help the kids raise money, but also to encourage them to - you guessed it - read. In theory, it sounds like a great idea. I like reading, I like promoting reading, I like my kids to read. Should be easy enough to get them to read a little extra after school every day, right? Not so much. In order to successfully complete the read-a-thon, they were required to get 5 pledges of $5 or more (emphasis on the "or more" part), and keep track of all of the minutes that they read. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the point of a whatever-a-thon to get the kid to collect the money based on how many books/laps swam/km's run etc. after the fact? I am puzzled by the idea that people just pledge money regardless of how much the kid is going to read, and that the kid just collects the money beforehand and hopefully they have read enough to make it worthwhile. Doesn't it defeat the purpose of a reading incentive to just let them have the money, even if they don't read? I remember doing a spell-a-thon in elementary school and going around to collect pledges ahead of time, but the people who pledged only had to pay based on how many words we spelled correctly. Yes, a logistical nightmare, but also more of a reinforcement for us to spell the words right, don't you think? Maybe it's just me.

The school also wanted them to keep track of all the books they read, which in theory should be extremely easy. Just have them write them down right after they read them with the minutes they read for each time. The only trouble with this element is that I have one daughter who is an avid reader and who reads constantly. Anything she sees, she reads. Do I count the newspaper left out on the table that she sits down to read for 15 minutes as part of the read-a-thon, or the email she reads over my shoulder as I type it? They say books, but if she's reading chapter books that take more than one day to read, do I keep track of the total number of minutes and just record the date once she's finished the book, or do I write down the books every day, even if they're the same? Will the teachers think I'm cushioning my kids' results if I submit a form that has the same book listed five days in a row? Will they even notice? *Insert deep breath here*

Anyway, we actually did quite well at keeping track of the books they read. Every morning I would tell them to go get the books they had read the day before, we would record them and estimate how long they read them for, since neither of them wear a watch or really have any concept of time in general. This wouldn't have been so bad, except that Missy Mae also has to record books she is reading for her own classroom, Ray has to record how many minutes she's read each night in her daytimer, we're supposed to be tracking how much physical activity they do on another tracking sheet, signing their daytimers every day, and trying to remember to go over spelling words, sight words, and include anything extra they may be doing in their classrooms that day to make sure they have the supplies needed and they don't look like the only kid in the class whose mom doesn't have it all together (seriously though, when do I ever have it all together?). By the end of last week, they had each recorded their minutes, received enough pledges to meet their bare $25 minimum. They told the kids they couldn't go door-to-door to get pledges, and I wouldn't have sent my kids to do that anyway, but to ask friends and relatives for support. The trouble is that most of my friends have kids of their own doing a million fundraisers and I don't want to bother them, and all of our relatives live far away (and yes, I'm complaining about that, too), so we didn't have a whole lot of options there. I pledged them, a friend that works at the school pledged them, and their grandpa pledged them, but that was it. Pretty sure neither of them will win a prize (because of course there were prizes for most minutes read and most money raised), but we finished the fundraiser, and hopefully our bare minimum amounts helped to contribute to all the extra newsletters the school can now send home with additional assignments for the parents to complete.