A great way to encourage reading is for your kids to earn their way to a vacation destination! Kids love watching a movie or playing video games, but reading, unfortunately, has become the media of last resort. So, you have to find a way to turn reading, or the Reading Fair, into a challenge with an award for completing the book. This move will create enthusiasm and engage your family in planning a vacation together!
One of the most popular family vacations is the Harry Potter Experience at Universal!
This adventure appeals to the kid in all of us, and starting around age 6 or 7, reading the books can become a great experience, too! Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, is a tremendous introduction into the worlds of Harry Potter. If you haven’t read the book, read it with your child. Then, as you go to Universal, you can walk the streets of Diagon Alley together and imagine Harry Potter buying his school supplies with Hagrid. Next, ride the Hogwarts Express and watch it literally come alive from the pages of the book!
And, you can eat chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts Beans and realize why Harry and Ron loved them so much!
But, maybe your child wants to be a great Jedi!
For these padawans, an awesome reward would be going to Hollywood Studios and being trained by a real Jedi Master and touring the worlds with C3PO in Star Tours!
You could even frame the certificate from Jedi Training so that everyone can see that they were a real Jedi!
Lucky for you, there are lots of great books out now for kids who love Star Wars!
It could be that your kids would enjoy survival books like The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, or Hatchet: they are intrigued by the kids in these stories and how they manage to survive all of the obstacles in their way!
Then, choosing a big outdoor vacation such as one of the Adventures by Disney National Park Tours would be a great reward for reading these books!
Your family may be big Disney Park fans like mine!
Have your kids pick 3 countries from the World Showcase and read a book from each country: their reward would be to visit Epcot and the countries they read about! They would have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the culture, talk to people from the country itself, and buy a souvenir that reminds them of the book!
Or, have them read the Kingdom Keepers series; then, work together to plan a visit to the Magic Kingdom and recreate an adventure from one of the books!
The options are endless!
Reading is fun, and can be a wonderful way to bridge the book with a real-life, family excursion!
You pick the book, and I’ll book your vacation!
sylvia@travelwiththemagic.com
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