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{Now Closed} Family Reading Night Challenge + Vtech V.Reader Giveaway

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Family Reading Night? Sounds kind of boring, right? In the age of digital, who wants to read.

Well, me for one. I love to read. I hope that my kids get the reading bug too. Sometimes it helps if it is a book that is interesting to them, like my older daughter loves the Twilight book series or just a book that has pretty pictures in the case of my youngest daughter.

One way I have be able to make reading fun for the little ones in our household – ages 6 and 4, is the new Vtech V.Reader, which we received last week. Not only it is educational, it is fun too! I don’t think the kids have realized yet that this is really a learning toy!

The Vtech V.Reader is like a Kindle for little kids. It is slim and easy to operate.  The Vtech V.Reader was an instant hit with my kids. They each took turns listening to the story and playing the word games. Then, Eli started begging me to get the books online. It isn’t available yet but soon there will be hundreds of downloadable books, may of them free.

Do you have any ideas on how to make a fun reading night for the entire family?

Leave your thoughts in the comments and you will be entered to win a new V.Reader and a game to go along with it ($80 value.) You will have your choice of pink or blue!

How to Win

Prize: V.Reader (pink or blue) + One Game ($80 value)

You can enter up to 3 times with the following methods:

1. Leave a comment with an answer to Do you have any ideas on how to make a fun reading night for the entire family?

2. Become a Facebook Liker of Vtech Toys and Bargain Briana on Facebook.

3. Tweet the following on Twitter:

How do you create Family Reading Night? Plus, win the new V.Reader from @bargainbriana and @VTechToys http://bit.ly/bMYyqo #v.reader

Please leave a comment for each additional entry.

Giveaway ends Friday, July 16, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Winner will be chosen by random. Be sure bargainbriana@gmail.com is in your safe sender list as you don’t want to miss the email if you are the chosen winner. If winner doesn’t respond to my email within 48 hours, I will pick another winner. U.S. Entries only.

This giveaway was sponsored by Vtech through Motherhood. Post was written 100% by me and was not edited by the sponsor. Read more on my Disclosure Policy.

Want to win more? Enter to win the rest of my current giveaways!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. There are different things you can do for a family reading night, you can have the kids read or have a book read to them, then perform a play or puppet show, based on the book. You can also put on a play/show based on a homemade script. You can play charades or Rhyming Time.

    What I do with my kids, is after we watch a movie, we go to the library and look for books based on or related to the movie. Recently, I got about 4 Toy Story 3 books :) … We also write in a Journal about the stories/movies we read/watched, and have them read to us their entries

  2. For a great family reading night, don’t be shy! I love to do all the voices and accents when I read to little ones. For books that are very familiar to them, I like to substitute a few words, or skip a sentence or two, so they can ‘catch’ me.

  6. Reading is just a common fun thing at our house so just suggesting it is the best way to go here!

  7. My idea is for small kids who don’t read yet. Have each kid and adult pick a favorite short book. Put the names of the family members in a hat. Pull a name out and an adult reads the book that that person chose.

  8. We have Friday reading night. My ten year old reads on his own, but my four year old likes to read to me or for me to read to her. If we had the V-Tech V Reader, I think it would expand on my four year old’s reading experience and encourage her to read even more. She would be challenged and reading would become more of a game.

  11. For a fun reading night, let everyone choose their favorite book and have popcorn, kinda like a movie night but with books!

  12. My kids love to read so I have no problems with that…But they would LOVE to read with this since they don’t get to play video games!

  13. I always enjoyed “popcorn” reading where everyone takes turns reading a couple lines. I’d make it like a movie night where we have lots of junk food and pillows and blankets on the floor.

  16. My 1-1/2 year old & 3 Year old LOVE being read to!!! It really pulls them in when you read to them with excitment & expression! Every night I let them each pick out a book. I read them and then I let my 3 year old son read his version of it! He loves reading to his baby sister. We make this a nightly ritual and sometimes complete it with a snack like popcorn! Much better than watching a movie with them because we are all interacting!!!!

    ***WINNER***

  17. My twins are 3 and baby is 7 mon, so our reading consist of getting into the play tent with popcorn and reading a story, oh well, they love it

  18. When one of mine was an emerging reader, it was her job to jump into the story reading the words that she knew, and we would end up giggling as she rushed in to beat me reading :)

    I already follow Bargain Briana and we love Vtech learning toys for our foster/adopt, daycare and grandbabies.

  21. Pick a book with fun characters, dress up in costumes, and have the kids act out the parts as you read the book aloud.

  23. Make the reading competitive–have a game out of it by asking questions and who ever wins gets a prize. Done that once when our power went out. :)

  24. In our house any cuddle time in Mommy & Daddy’s bed is “special time,” so reading in our bed always ensures a toddler who is attentive to the story and a calm baby who enjoys looking at the pics/colors.

  25. We love to read by flashlight – makes an adventure out of any story. My 3 year old loves to try to make shadows based on things going on in the book.

  26. I am a facebook ‘liker’ of you and I have become one of Vtech although it goes against my every grain because they have terrible customer service. :( It took about 2 months and emails from them implying that I’m stupid and there was nothing wrong with it for them to replace my month old broken baby monitor.

  27. I’ve been reading daily to my girls since litereally day one (even before). So they both love to read (getting less books at night is a punishment). But for extra family fun we pick out books that have a common theme and do crafts or activities that have to do with the books. Ex: we read green eggs & ham and if you give a mouse a cookie then have breakfast for dinner with green eggs and then cookies for desert and make mouse ears with a paper plate cut in 1/2 and decorated by them. :)

  28. I do reading night with my 2 littlest ones every night before bed. When we do family reading night, my husband will read a choose your own adventure book to the bigger kids. Then when he gets to a choice, the kids pick which one. You never know where the story is going to end up and they all really enjoy it.

  33. I love electronics, so for me this would be right up my alley for childrens gifts!I’d love to win one!

  34. I think it would be fun to have the kids help make some great snacks, put all the pillows from the house in the living room, and have everyone pile together with their books and read together.

  37. I wish I knew how to make reading fun for all – my kids have such a gap in age (5, 15, 17). I think my 5 year old is the only one that is going to be a reader though. 17 year old goes through spurts and then burns herself out. 15 year old just doesn’t like to read (I know – how can anyone not like to read???) So I am putting my efforts into my youngest. He loves to have us read to him at night and I am excited for him to start reading to us!

    kherbrand at comcast dot net

  39. We take turns picking out a book. My husband reads in funny voices. Our older son reads his books while putting on a puppet show. Our 3 year old can’t read but makes up the cutest stories while he turns each page. It’s so cute. When it’s my turn I pick nursery rhymes and I sing them,which is hilarious because I have the worst singing voice. We have so much fun reading to each other.

  43. For fun reading – we will each read a page or if it is a tough book, by son gets a word to read, but he has to pay attention for when his word is on the page. We also participate in the Summer Reading programs at the library.

  44. We would get a bunch of comfy pillows and blankets and all sit on the couch together. I would make a variety of snacks and we would turn off all over noise and simply read our books. My husband has a new Kindle which has helped him to read a lot and my son would LOVE to have something like that. We are big readers in our family so we often read together.

  45. We pack a picnic lunch and a big blanket, go sit out in the shade with a bag of books and read. We get to hear the birds and see butterflies and pick flowers in between. :)

  47. we like to let the youngest pick a book and start by reading the first lines. Everyone takes a turn and puts their own “voices” to the characters. By the time we have run thru all 12 family members, we are laughing and having a good time.

  48. Make it into a big event just like you do with movies…pop popcorn, lower the lights except the one for reading (ha!), get special blanket out…

  49. We have a basket of books and let the grandkids pick out as many as they want. We plop down with a big blanket on the couch and read away until the pile picked out is completely gone through.

  52. To broaden their reading interests, you may want to expose your child to many different types of books, rotating between biographies, nonfiction, historical fiction, mysteries and other genres. Encouraging children to write down their requests for family reading night will increase their anticipation for this special event.

  56. To make a fun reading night for the family, let each kid decide which night he or she would like to take, and allow them to read their book to the family.

  59. To make a family reading night (or day) extra special we will set the tent up inside and read (by flashlight) stories about camping, stars, and wildlife.

  60. We read a lot in house. Some ways that we make reading fun:

    *read books with repeating lines for young readers to feel a part of the action.
    *have grandparents, aunt, uncles, family friends record themselves reading or read while skyping (my girls love this!)
    * make a food item to match what is in the book.
    * write or imagine a new ending to the book.
    *read a longer chapter book that has a movie. Watch the movie to celebrate finishing the book and then talk about how it was alike/different.

  61. We read a book to our son and at the end we ask him few questions about what we read and reward him for his answers. That ways it’s fun for him, and even we come to know his reading and understanding capabilities.
    (mommalovesmee At Gmail Dot Com)

    (mommalovesmee At Gmail Dot Com)

  63. Letting everyone read aloud and reading as expressively as possible will make for a fun reading night!
    mearley1979 at gmail dot com

  64. We all love books in my family, so it is never an issue unless we don’t read- THEN they make a fuss! :-) One of the boys’ favorite thing to do with reading is “Tumble Books” which reads books on-line to them- we just access it through our local library’s website.

  65. Pretend like you are reading around a campfire…set up on the floor, make some smores, read with flashlights and cuddle!

  69. I think it would be fun to have a theme night that corresponded to what ever story was being read. Everyone could dress up or just make hats out of cardboard and paper. Then have dinner be something thats in the story or that the characters might eat. And after dinner there could be a small treasure hunt. My kids and now grandkids like to find out about different cultures or people and learn the little everyday things that set those people apart from us. My grandaughter’s summer library program is on Medieval Times this year so we are teaching them about how people lived, how they dressed, what they ate, and of course all about the knights and all that armour. I don’t think you’d neccassarily have to go all out with costumes unless you could afford it or had access to things like that. There are ways to experience things without it costing a lot of money. One of my kids most eye opening experiences was spending a night and day in a tipi and seeing how everyone had their own space. They also leaned that in limited space like a tipi there was a place for everything and if something was out of place that it caused confusion. But they really liked laying in the tipi at night being able to see the sky and stars through the smoke hole.

  71. I think going to the library that day and picking special books for Family Reading Night would be fun. Kids need to see Mommy and Daddy reading too.

  74. Let your kids see you read too! Kids learn by example…my kids can read on their own so we all find a comfy spot in the living room and read for a while then share what we are reading with each other.

  75. Encourage reading of *any* kind…even if it is comic books, Sunday comics or magazines, it is still reading :)

  76. My daughter reads to her grandmother on skype; that makes it so much fun for her. She reads and then turns the pictures and shows her the story.

  79. My kids are still really young (1 and 2), but we like to let them pick their favorite books and just cuddle up on the couch to read. I also like to turn their books into a flannel board story that we can tell/play with.

  80. Every night is family reading night in our house. Emma (aged 2) gets to choose any books she wants, and my husband and I take turns reading to her. We ask her to look at the pictures and tell us what’s happening in her own words as well as reading the text to her. Eric Carle books are a particular favorite. Thanks for offering the chance to win this fabulous prize.

  82. We go to the library and we checkout as many books as are allowed. This gets them excited and then we unplug everything and read and tell each other something about what we read afterwards.

  84. Like other families we too incorporate crafts and games along with story time in order to make the story come alive.

  89. We enjoy a family book together, then my 6 year old who is beginning to read reads us one of her learning books. We enjoy this time together!

  93. We always do story time before bed. Over the summer, we have time to make it to the library each week, so story time is almost always the week’s special picks from the library!!

  95. We have two small children, 3 and 1 years of age and as all moms know at that age it is hard to keep their attention. Sometimes we will sing the books or let our three year old chime in on the parts he knows to keep him entertained. We try to all four sit down every night and read together. I feel its very important to start early. Both of our children randomly bring us books throughout the day and ask us to read them so we try to make time for that as well.They are only young once after all! :)

  99. We take my daughter to the library and she gets to pick out all the books we read on her own. She gets so excited when we read her one of the books she chose.

    Sometimes we also will read a story and the next day we will try and do some of the things in the story. For example if the characters are on a safari, we will go in the backyard and pretend we are on a safari. I like it because it gets her to recall what happened in the book and she likes it because we go on lots of adventure.

  100. for a fun reading night i think its nice to have everyone read a little from the book and create the voices themselves on how they think the characters sound when speaking

  103. For a fun reading night its fun to play reading sharades where everyone takes a page read it to themselves then try to act out what the characters are doing

  105. Read Choose Your Own Adventure books out loud and take turns making decisions! Or act out stories (or parts) after reading them!

  108. My husband and I try to do a devotional book together-much more motivating than reading it by ourselves.

  110. I would make it a theme night- we would select a common topic, and go “treasure hunting” in the library to find a book on that topic, then share what we have learned/read with each other!

  111. As a kid…..for family night….one child got to pick the snack….one child picked the book…..one child picked the drink and one child picked where in the house we read. It was GREAT and included everyone in the family!!

  113. Kids are liking putting a sticker on a chart we got from the library for every day we read.

  114. Write your own book to read! Have each family member give a sentence to the story, going around and adding one at a time. Have the kids draw pictures to go with each page – you can find blank books at a teacher store. When it is all finished, have a premiere night and read it together!

  115. My family loves to start a fire in the backyard and read around the fire while we make smores!

  117. My daughter (not yet a reader) absolutely loves to make up the story based on her memory and the pictures. For now I think its perfectly enjoyable to sit and listen to her tales. She loves books so much she said she wanted to be a Librarian when she grew up.

  119. my kids aren’t old enough to read yet but we read to them every night… we try to make funny voices or ask them who the characters remind them off and make it fun for them! sometimes we have to read the same book every night for weeks!

  120. Our fun is the same as some of the others — we make up funny voices. My husband is better at it than me but even I get giggles from our son! :)

  126. To make family night really special we do a craft to go along with our book. Our favorite are Eric Carle crafts!

  128. in our family the best times are when each of the boys gets to chose one book (a shorter one) and we read them with lots of different voices and sound affects.
    when we’ve hit sort of a boredom point with reading I will get really silly and we’ll read a whole book backwards (reading the sentences and pages backwards, not trying to read the individual words backwards that hurts my brain). Or I’ll read the story and replace a word that is used a lot with something off the wall so its completely silly.

  130. My 5 year old is reading small books and loves to read to anyone willing to listen. Instead of us reading to the kids before bed, we let her read a book to us! She loves it and it makes learning so fun!

  132. WE have everyone take a page or line and we all do our best inpersonations to go with each charater. It is a blast! Sometimes we laugh so hard we actually have to go back and re-read the page but its all good.

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