Mommy is taking a minute to brag

So if you have strong negative opinions on bragging you can close this out now.

Or now..

I am SO stinking proud of Roman & Dallon! They have grasped this AR (Accelerated Reader) program at school by the bull horns! It's the competitiveness within them. If you're not familiar with this program, here's the scoop! Starting in Kindergarten the children check out books that are marked as AR books in the library & read them in the class as well. Once they have read the book they take a test on the computer (at school) & they earn points depending on how well they did on the test. Most of the books are .50 (1/2) a point. As they get harder (chapter books) they can earn more points. I saw a very thick chapter book that was 29 points! Although, my boys are not interested in those books. I wish, but not yet. There are a few girls at school that are reading those type books, more on that later. Three times a year there is an AR Store where the kids can shop with their earned points. The store is funded partly by our church & the local grocery store. Roman has been doing this for five years and these are some of the things he has brought home; bike, Razor scooters, telescope, bug habitats, AND this last 9 weeks my boys brought home a NINTENDO DS EACH!!!! They started saving their points about midway through the year last year. They couldn't wait! Do the calculations, they had to read & test on over 300 books each to reach the cost of the game systems, 150 points. This also took self control because they wouldn't be spending their points each time the AR Store came around. Well, that's not it, nope, I'm not done. Today Roman & Dallon (along with the top five point earners from each grade) had lunch with their Principle, Mrs. Simpkins. She bought them Wendy's. I can't wait to hear how it went! The top point earners for each grade also had their picture printed in our local paper. Dallon missed his by four points by one of his best friends! He was very happy for his friend & I love that. Roman doesn't shoot for the #1 spot anymore, he's settled for #2 because there is a girl in his grade that reads those high point books non-stop-around-the-clock. She earns a years worth of Roman's points in one nine weeks. He was the only boy in his grade to be in the top five. These boys truly work hard to reach their personal reading goals.

OK OK OK.. Enough bragging. Thanks for listening. Er, reading. (I was waiting to post this with a picture of the boys with their DSs but I keep forgetting to take one. I'll add one later.)

Ask your school's Principle about starting this program today!