There is a conversation over in the homeschool forums discussing whether or not the Book-It program that bribes students to read in exchange for Pizza is a good idea as homeschoolers do not or should not need bribes in order to read of to learn. Book-it is a pizza hut program that encourages reading while rewarding children with pizza and other prizes.
Fundamentally, I agree with the argument because I am just dead set against bribing students to learn. Meanwhile, however, as my students/ children get older, I am realizing that there may be a necessity to bribe them to strive for perfection. They have no problems with learning. They love it. They prefer to do it spontaneously and without help. The problem comes in documenting what they have done and summarizing what they have learned.
Basically, as I see it, they like learning, but don’t care to show what they have learned. To me this is problematic because no one is going to pay you to be smart. They are going to pay you for demonstrating your intelligence on their behalf. With that said, I have to say that using a program like Book-it, while they are already motivated to learn, will also motivate them to record what they have learned.
At the end of the day, free pizza is free pizza and this economy is rough! If you still don’t want to use the Book-It program to get your children to read and record what they have written, just take note of what they read, ask them the pertinent questions and write it down, and get the free pizza. The kids never even have to know where it came from!
Oh… and don’t forget to participate in the forum discussion.
More about the Book-It program