National Literacy Month

Jet and I finished up National Literacy Month with Shadow Mountain Publishing's adult and children's calendars. 

 

September 23 Share your reading-journey story

Read somewhere new

 

September 24 Read a chapter before screen time

Talk about your child's favorite character

 

September 25 Follow an author online

Donate a children's book

 

September 26 Visit a bookstore

Read aloud to a sibling

 

September 27 Finish a book

Act out a scene from a book

 

September 28 Reflect on what you've learned while reading

Build a reading fort

 

September 29 Read for personal growth

Read 3 books today

September 30 Celebrate Literacy Month with your next read

Celebrate by choosing a new book together 

 

That was awesome. I'm glad we did it and we really did. We did an item from each of those two calendars every day. Way to go, us. 

Thank You, Agatha Christie's Hat?

September 15 was National Thank You Day. Those words were said in our home, of course.

It was Linguine Day but I didn't have any linguine so I made spaghetti with alfredo.

It was National Double Cheeseburger Day. To go along with Shelftember, I used a tamale casserole from the freezer (it had both hamburger and cheese in it). I made Spanish rice to go with it and homemade bread and applesauce (not homemade).

It was Agatha Christie's Birthday. I checked out an Agatha Christie book from the library.

It was Make a Hat Day. I watched Alice Through the Looking Glass while doing dishes and making dinner.

One of these years, we really need to make an Agatha Christie themed hat.

   

The Shadow Mountain Publishing calendars for National Literacy Month had the following for that day's literacy activities, in order of adult calendar and children's calendar:

 

September 15 Join a discussion online

Read a book about friendship

International Literacy Day

September 8 was International Literacy Day. #LiteracyAtEveryAge

The Shadow Mountain Publishing National Literacy Month adult and children's calendars had these literacy activities listed:

 

Read for 45 minutes

Read an extra book together 

 

September 8 was also the 60th Anniversary of Star Trek. I have friends who are big Star Trek fans who had a whole weekend of it. I let them know I was thinking of them that day. 

Read a Book Day

September 6 was someone special's birthday so I wore my bow earrings.

It was also National Read a Book Day. All of the National Literacy Month calendars from Shadow Mountain Publishing (as well as the "Daily Fun With Your Little One!" calendar from Orem Library) said Read Outside for the literacy activity.

We couldn't read just a book, however. 

#LiteracyAtEveryAge

End of School Year Things

So much happened the end of the school year. Let me try to share some of it. This is not necessarily in order.

 

Field trips! 

Jet went bowling. Lucky went roller skating. The whole school went to watch Paddington at a movie theater. 

When I asked Jet what he liked about bowling, he told me, "I liked knocking down a lot of pins."

 

Reading Hall of Fame! 

Jet and Lucky both did enough reading for the Hall of Fame this year that they got certificates, posters, bookmarks, and a new book each.

Lucky got a special framed certificate and another book for doing the Hall of Fame all the years of elementary school.

 

Student Council Party!

Lucky was the secretary of the Student Council this year and they had a party at the end of the year. When I went to drop him and a friend off for the party, they started heading toward the door then all of a sudden ran the other direction and into the parking lot. A few other kids did the same. I realized, it was because they were helping carry food and things in for the party. No hesitation, these kids immediately went to help. I appreciate seeing this from these students. They are a good example to others (no wonder they were accepted into student council this year). 

Lucky brought home a service award "for outstanding leadership, character, and service."

 

Two of the aides in Jet's class retired this year so we went to a little retirement party held for them at the school and Jet made them cards.

Jr. Jr. also got a bunch of certificates for surviving junior high. He and I went to a celebration. Then we practiced some juggling afterward.

You saw the train he made, right? See my blog post from May 14, 2026. Jr. Jr. brought home a candy dispenser he made, too. 

 

I got to go to an assembly at the elementary school where Lucky was presented with a Hope of America Award. It was awarded to Lucky "who has demonstrated during this school year capacity for leadership, ethical and moral character and outstanding academic accomplishment."

I was talking with a mom of one of Lucky's friends who also got the award about how it was fun to see how several of these students were good friends. It's nice to know that they are good influences on each other. Keep up the good work, kids.

 

I went to the elementary school dance festival to watch Lucky and Jet dance. They both did great. Jet's first and Lucky's last.

What a cool kid.

Woohoo! We survived another school year. 

Read-a-thon

I'm not the only one who loves reading challenges. The elementary school recently had their annual read-a-thon. This year, a Book Bandit escaped from the book and it took reading so many minutes to get him back in his book.

Jet got very excited about it when they had their opening assembly. He came home and told us about the Book Bandit. He even decided he had a certain color shirt that was his "case solver" shirt to solve clues about the Book Bandit so he alternated between two shirts during the whole read-a-thon. Oh my. He is so cute. 

But let me let him share about it:

 

yeftefytrreggdytdyrtderfyg;lgblkghjghjbnhjbioiuio jioojuojujojiiiiiiiiiiiiikuiiooiuoyiiigtjjirtjrithgiirgthghtiththitgthhfthtrhfrjtgjrgihhrugrftbrth hjrknfrg fjrmfrnfm

 

Translation (as fast as I could keep up):

Mystery solver. mystery solver solved the clues. Boom, solved the clues.

something about the book thief.

Find the clues, mystery solver. 

 

Told you he was cute.

Daddy read a bedtime story (or two or three) to him every night then told me how many minutes they read so I could record it the next morning.

Lucky, of course, did his own reading, and read he did.

On the last day of the read-a-thon, he came home with a medal for being one of the top readers (reading the most minutes). Not really a surprise. This kid also loves reading challenges.

Lucky told me that Jet's team got the most minutes overall, though, so that's also fun.

Other September thins

Other things we did in September:

 

More Walks-

alone (or with the birds)

with Jet (he still really likes to ride in the stroller)

 

Can I just say what a gorgeous place we live in? It is a treat just to walk outside and look at our mountains.

 

FHE fun-

Jeremy's been trying to come up with ideas that are not the usual ideas for Family Home Evening activities. We did the glow stick story back in August. In September, we played "Keepy Uppy." We even put on the accompanying music and had fun. If you don't know, "Keepy Uppy" is a game the family played in an episode of Bluey. We even turned on a fan and added more and more balloons to our game. It was fun.

 

Creativity continues to happen.

I thought I was being nice one morning and made scrambled eggs and got out cheese and tortillas for making breakfast burritos. I even made a sign that said, "Go for it. Enjoy! (Love) Mom," with an arrow pointing toward the burrito fixings. 

Someone thought it would be funny to move the sign so it was pointing at the chocolate chip banana muffins that were in a different spot on the table. "Go for it? Enjoy? Oh, thanks, Mom." 

I agree it was funny. Points for creativity. Of course I was fine with them eating some muffins with their breakfast burritos. I love this family! 

 

One evening I was having a rough time and I needed to take my young men to a fireside at the stake center. I decided to stay for the fireside instead of just dropping them off and I'm glad I did. I needed the extra little spiritual uplift that night and sharing it with my boys was nice. I love my children so much.

Lots of reading. Jet likes it when Daddy reads to him.

 

Dress Up! 

Looking like Mommy? Or a ghost? Boo!

Celebrating Eric Carle's Birthday 2025

We love Eric Carle. Such fun books and illustrations. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was my youngest's favorite book for a while. He had the whole book memorized because he could look at the pictures and know what words went along with them.

So when we found out about Discovery Kits at the Provo Library and that we could get one that was Eric Carle themed, we definitely had to put it on hold. An added bonus is that it became available for us to pick up in time for Eric Carle's Birthday on June 25. Woohoo!

We read books, we did puzzles, we played with character magnets from books.

There were also some crafts but we didn't get around to doing any of those.

It was great. I definitely want to check out more Discovery Kits. It was good bonding time.

 

Lucky got to try something new as well. Book Boxes. We put a certain book on hold (there are two different books available) and it came in a bag with a bunch of envelopes. When he got to a certain page in the book, there was an envelope to open. It had anything from a treat to a game to a sticker or bookmark, something that went along with the action in the book at the time. He got to keep the goodies when he finished and we returned the book and the bag.

That was also pretty cool. 

He read the The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. 

 

I do like different programs and resources at our local libraries. Libraries are wonderful!