Achi news desk-
The Ultimate Summer Challenge is Calgary Public Library’s largest program with nearly 20,000 people registering each year for the past seven years.
The challenge is to encourage all members of the family to keep track of their reading throughout the summer.
“It can be your family reading at home, it can be your book club, it can be a group of lovers sharing titles throughout the summer,” said Melanie Nicholson, communications lead at the Calgary Public Library. “Read as much as you want, read whatever you want, it can be a fiction novel, it can be a comic, it can be a graphic novel, it can be an audio book, the goal is just to establish that habit of reading in truth have fun while you’re doing it.”
Registration opened June 1 and the free program runs from July 1 to August 31st. Nicholson says registration is easy and participants are eligible for prizes for all ages that include Calgary Zoo memberships, game prize packs, activity subscriptions, iPads, AirPods, and a variety of other items.
“What we do is create a daily habit of reading,” he said. “So once you’ve done that for 62 days, you’re not going to stop on September 1. It just keeps going and into the school year and into that feeling back to the school — so that’s what we’re really left with.”
An app for that
After registration, there is an app to track daily reading and see how everyone in the family is getting on.
The organizers say the challenge is an opportunity to develop consistent reading habits.
“Originally, one of the reasons for the challenge was to help combat what was known as the summer slide,” said Nicholson. “Where kids get so much momentum they get to June and then they stop, everything stops.
“The (Last Summer) Challenge is a way for people to continue reading, especially for those young people who have just started and who don’t lose their momentum throughout the summer, they can maintain the that habit, they can keep learning, keep growing, and then they hit the ground running in September when they’re back at school.”
Vowel sounds
Lindsey Bowns signed her family for the first time. She is a member of the library and regularly checks out books with her six-year-old daughter, Maribelle.
“Maribelle has been working really hard on her vowel sounds and learning her letters in nursery school,” she said. “We don’t want to lose that in the summer, but (the challenge is) a lot more fun than working through textbooks and worksheets.”
Maribelle is keen to improve her reading and enjoys books about unicorns and princesses.
“A princess book, what I like about it is how they have a happily ever after,” Maribelle said. “I have phonics books, I have learning books, I like those books to help me learn.”
Bowns got access to the app to help track the family’s reading. Maribelle can also color a map to see her progress and get stickers to put on it at any library location in Calgary.
“I would love it if she had completed the sticker chart and the coloring sheet as much as she is happy with it,” said Bowns. “And to be able to progress to Grade 1 knowing that we’ve read so many books, we’ve had so many imaginative trips during the summer, she’ll have new talking points with her friends, new vocabulary and has been practicing her reading . back to the school year.”
The Ultimate Summer Challenge is presented by the JKL MacLachlan Family Fund and is part of the TD Summer Reading Club, a national program for children in Canadian public libraries.
Find out more about the program here.