Welcome, welcome! This reading tree book tracker is so fun and so beautiful. My boys love to keep track of the books that we are reading throughout the year. Last year we did this fun paper chain reading tracker. Each of us had our own chain and by the end of the year, most of us had the chain touching the floor and then some. It was inspiring to watch it grow.
This year we decided to do something different. I had a couple different ideas and a cousin helped me bring my vision to a reality. This is what we came up with. I am LOVING it.
It is simple and pretty. To make the leaves big enough, I would recommend printing this print out on a 20″x 20″ paper. I just had a local printing company print mine, but there are a lot of different online companies that you can have it done and mailed to you. The leaves you can print out on regular paper at home. There are enough colors of the leaves so each member in the family can have their own color to place on the tree when they read a book.
WAYS TO USE THE READING TREE BOOK TRACKER
#1 – You can use it simply to track your books that each person reads in the family. As you complete a book, take your leaf, write the title of the book and put it on your family tree. We have a different color leaf for the read aloud books we read together as a family.
This is our tree at the end of January, so we are almost a month into our year. We have a couple boys who are very close to finishing some more books. It is so fun to start seeing the tree grow.
#2 – You can make it a competition to see who can gets 10 books first.
#3 – You can create incentives and set goals as a family. For example, when your family gets 30 books you go out for ice cream.
#4 – As your child starts to read they could write the title of the book on a leaf and place the leaf at the bottom of the tree. When they finish the book they then could place it on their tree. This may motivate them to see their leaf daily on the chart, but not on the tree yet.
Tips to inspire your children to read
#1 – Have read aloud books where you read to your children. My boys LOVE me reading to them.
#2 – You contribute to the tree as well. You want your children to be readers, then you need to be a reader.
#3 – Talk about the books you are reading. Ask lots of questions and be interested in the books your children are reading.
#4 – Place books around the house with the cover facing outward. This has been proven to help kids pick up books to read them.
#5 – Turn the TV off. Seriously… We don’t watch TV during the week and on the weekend it is only a small amount. It may be difficult at first, but it becomes easier. My boys hardly every ask to watch TV anymore. You could try this 30 day no screen time challenge!