The Right Motivation

Matthew is a great reader!  However, in his mind he has decided that he can only read picture books.  He will read chapter books if I read them with him and we take turns, but he WILL NOT read one on his own.   I know if he could just catch the reading bug and really get into a book, he would take off.  Well, the other night Matt was telling Layne that he wants to build a robot.  They got online and found a robot kit (the most inexpensive one is $40).  Layne told him that if he earned half the money, they could get the kit.  Immediately, Matt was trying to find jobs to do around the house, but it was bedtime which means storytime, so I told him I would give him 2 stones for each chapter he read.  (My kids earn stones all week long, each stone is worth 10 cents, and then we count up their stones at the end of the week and give them the money they earned).  Matthew read 2 chapters by himself that night and finished the book the next day.  Incidentally, the book he was reading was
"Stink and the Midnight Zombie Walk".  It was right up his alley with a lot of talk about guts, brains and bloody body parts.  It is probably a little too easy for him, but if it gets him to read more, I don't care.   He is now wanting to know what other Stink books he can read.  I just wish there were more of them.   This is a good start though, I'm confident that he will be a book worm like his sister some day.