200 books & reading goals

I went back and read my original post about doing 100 books today. I think I should have read that when I did our final post for the year! Holy cow! What a difference! To think I was actually worried that I wouldn't reach 25 books (which I did by May) and that we as a family would't reach 100 books (which we did by April)!

Well, this year we set different goals. Actually, we decided to do away with the family goal and just set individual goals:

(1) My goal is to read 100 books

(2) Vampire Kitten's goal is to read 50 books

(3) Lone Wolf's goal is to read 25 books

(4) Little Legs has the goal of reading 13 books with me

(5) And we have the goal to read 12 books as a family

This gives us an overall goal of 200 books, but we won't actually reach our goal unless we meet the five mini goals. There will also be prizes in categories like we did last year as well as prizes for meeting our individual goals (and even doubling our goals if we manage to).

So why is it broken down like this?

Every time we were close to a multiple of 100 last year I sort of pushed everyone to read as much as they could. I don't regret that action, it helped us reach 315 books after all, but it did create a sense of pressure. This year we don't want pressure to constantly do better, we just want to read and enjoy reading. And while a small part of me wants to challenge the family to aim for 350, another part of me doesn't.

I have a nice, reasonable, goal of 100 - which is only slightly under what I read last year. Vampire Kitten has a reasonable goal too with 50. Yes, it is half of last years amount, but it is easily obtainable and he should have no problem doubling it - and if he doesn't that is okay too. Lone Wolf's is a very low goal, but lately he has been reading much harder books which take him far longer to read. So really, in light of that, his goal is very fair. Little Legs and I will hopefully read one book a month at a minimum - and I certainly hope we will double or triple this goal. But again, if we don't, it is not the end of the world. If he wants me to read him Peppa Pig and Pete the Cat instead I am not going to tell him no.Lastly, 12 as a family, that is the one I am worried about. We have a hard time setting aside time for family reading. That is something we will have to work on. But, this is why we make goals!

Now I know I promised the potential awards for 2019, but we are still undecided on some of them. All I know for sure is we will do Most Total Books Read, Most Chapter Books Read, and Most Graphic Novels Read. Everything else is up in the air.

More tomorrow when I finally sit down and compile our book list for the month! I can't wait to see how we did!