Hobbies And Interests
Club Commitment
For the club to succeed, parents and children alike must make a commitment to the club. They must be willing to schedule in the club meeting and treat it as important as any other function or appointment. For the club to succeed, the kids must attend. Furthermore, the parents need to commit to making sure their child(ren) have and make the time to do any outside reading.
Reading Time
Decide if your club will be for discussing what was read outside of club time (for older children) or if it will be to listen while an adult reads aloud (for younger children). If the club is for discussion and activities based on reading, make sure there is ample time between club meetings for the required reading to be finished. Be realistic in setting the goals. Assess the book or chapter length to be read and estimate how long in hours it would take an average reader to finish. Then, assess how many hours a day the children in the book club will actually devote to reading. If the club is for young children, then assess the length of the book for reading aloud. You want to be able to finish the book (and possibly other books) during the allotted club time. Young children will typically be less likely to retain interest if a book is not finished in one setting. However, if the children involved are not typical, you may be able to introduce them to older reading books and read to them across more than one club meeting. If so, you might open each meeting with a recap of what transpired in the previous readings.
Reading Material
School teachers are often more than happy to supply a reading list. As well, some school districts publish their reading lists on line. If your school has an online site with such information, you would surely have that information in a Parent-Teacher packet. By exploring your child's upcoming reading list early, you can give him a head start in class. While you will want to consider reading content, do not censure in broad strokes. By encouraging your child to read a broad spectrum of genres, you may hit upon the genre that genuinely interests your child. Often, a child will branch out naturally in her reading tastes if given time. But if the club only reads from one genre, then you risk boring the child and stifling his imagination.
Reward System
Institute a reward system. Children love contests. You can create a board to keep track of the number of books read. Have automatic prizes--things won at set levels. For instance, a toy at reaching five books, something else at ten and so on. Have monthly prizes for those who have read the most at the end of each month, starting the monthly count over with the next month.
Club Activities
Will you have all the children read the same book and then discuss that book at the club meeting? Or, will the children read different books and then offer a summary as his part of club participation? Or, perhaps you will have a bit of both--one assigned book to be completed by the end of the month and a book chosen from the list to be read each week. Besides discussing what happened in the book or discussing the main character and his actions, suppose you let the children use their imaginations. What might happen after the book ended? Let the children tell you the next story in that character's life. What could the character have done differently in the book? How might that have changed the book's outcome? What did each child learn from the book? And for a fun exercise, let the children be Hollywood producers. Let them decide if they were making the book into a movie who might they cast in the main roles? What parts of the book would they cut out from the movie and why? Would they change the book's ending? If so, to what and why?