Group Participants in the Children's Summer Reading Challenge
Your whole group can join in our Children's Summer Reading Challenge!
If you have a preschool, day care, or any sort of summer children's program, your whole group can participate in our Summer Reading Challenge!
How does it work?
Enroll all your kids in the challenge. Keep track of every day that they read or listen to books (either online or in a reading log we'll give you). Come to the library periodically during the summer to check in and pick up the rewards they've earned.
You can enroll your kids online OR give us the information, and we'll do it for you.
- Go to our Beanstack site: https://decaturlibrary.beanstack.org/reader365
- Click the button that says "Register an Individual or Family."
- Create an account for yourself. You'll need a name, an email that you'll use for this, phone, and zip code. Create a user name (whatever you want, though something like MyKidsDaycare will make it easy for us to find everyone). You can always log in with your email OR your user name.
- THEN add individual readers to your account. For each of them, you'll need: name, age, grade fall 2025, school fall 2025 (select "other" if you don't know).
- Click the box to enroll each in the Children's Summer Reading Challenge.
Suggestions
- If you want us to register your kids, please furnish us with all the information outlined above for your account, and for each participant. You can email it to us at childrens@decaturlibrary.org.
- As you gather information for your kids, get their current t-shirt size. You won't need it to register, but if they reach goal #3, they earn a ticket for a drawing of one of 60 t-shirts we'll be giving away. That will make it easier to enter them. The available sizes are: Toddler 4T, Youth Small, Youth Medium, Youth Large, Adult Small, Adult Medium, Adult Large.
- Schedule regular visits to the library during the summer, and let us know what days/times you'll be coming. Kids earn rewards for every 5 days of reading. You can pick up rewards for more than one completed level at a time.
- If you want to pick up printed reading logs for your group prior to your first visit, let us know how many. We'll have them available the last week of May. (Be sure each child who receives a reading log is already enrolled.) Please be sure to write their full name on the front of the reading log, to help us when you bring them in.
- You can log reading days for each child online via the app or Beanstack website. (For a larger group, it is easier on the website with a laptop browser.) Or we can log their reading days each time you come to the library. Be sure you've marked their reading days, and to bring their reading logs. If you have a large group, it may take us a few minutes to log their days. Plan to drop off your reading logs when you arrive and browse for books. Then we'll have their rewards ready when you leave.
- It is probably easier if all your kids are on the same level when they come to the library. That way each gets the same reward.
If that is not possible, it is helpful for us if you can either 1) bundle their reading logs according to level (these have all completed level 1, these level 2, etc. OR 2) give us a list of your kids indicating what level each has completed. Some groups create a simple spreadsheet of all their kids in the program, with a column for each level they reach, and a place to check when they get their reading rewards for each. They print out a copy for us each time they come in. - Plan to schedule some of your visits around special events at the library this summer. We'll have story times, READiculous shows, and lots of other fun. Our Summer Event Schedule should be available around May 1.