Scholastic Announces January 2014 as Get Book Fit Month

With the countdown to the Winter Games in full swing, Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, is calling all teachers and families to pledge January 2014 as "Get Book Fit" Month, and encourage their kids to train their brains by reading more books. To help kids get Book Fit, Scholastic has launched a free Facebook calendar app, providing parents and teachers with daily "scratch off" tips from experts on ways to motivate their children to stay mind-healthy throughout the month. Parents and teachers can join the campaign by "liking" Scholastic's interactive "Get Book Fit" calendar at Facebook.com/scholastic and by following the latest on #BookFit on Twitter (@Scholastic).

Throughout the month of January, families can visit Scholastic's "Get Book Fit" interactive calendar to get free daily resources, including book recommendations and tips from experts at Scholastic, articles from Scholastic Parent and Child magazine, and ebook picks from Storia, Scholastic's free ereading app. Plus, top athletes including gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, Amar'e Stoudemire from the New York Knicks and Justin Tuck from the New York Giants share the books that inspired them the most. Every Sunday, families can find "Spotlit Sundays," which will highlight must-reads for every age group from Scholastic Reading Club, and Fridays will be "Freebie Friday" day, where fans can enter for the chance to win free new releases from Scholastic.

"Just as any athlete needs to practice a sport in order to get better, kids need to practice reading to keep their brains sharp and become proficient readers," said Maggie McGuire, Vice President, Scholastic Kids and Parents Channels. "The new year reminds us to start new, healthy habits and getting 'Book Fit' is a perfect way to remind kids that reading is part of having a healthy lifestyle."

To kick off the campaign, Scholastic's experts curated a list of Top 10 Ways to Get "Book Fit":

1. Prep your home to be "Book Fit". Make reading material available in the rooms at home where your kids spend most of their time, easily accessible on tabletops, in bins or on bookshelves in each room. Include magazines, newspapers, comic books, how-to guides, and reading material that will tap into your child's interests and passions.
2. Reward a child's reading efforts with a medal. Incentivize the reading experience. In celebration of the upcoming Winter Games, award your child with a gold, silver or bronze medal based on how much he or she read that week.
3. Make the library your athletic stadium. Get library passes and dedicate a day and time each week to visit the library. Make the search for new books into a game such as "library bingo," where kids can actively search the library for specific genres, characters, etc. during their visit.
4. Create a family game night to exercise kid's minds. Select games that encourage critical thinking, spelling and language-building. Introduce new games to them over the course of the year. Get your kids involved in choosing what the game will be and what healthy snack should be served while playing!
5. Bring a book to life. Get kids moving with an activity based on the book he or she is reading. Is he or she reading about sports? Try out that sport that weekend. Reading about cooking? Bake something new with your child. Challenge your kids to try different experiences, enhance skills and open their eyes to things they have never tried before. Read it. Live it.
6. Host a "book marathon." Challenge readers at home or in school to to read several books by his or her favorite author. Try different book series to encourage your child to read every day.
7. Make reading a friendly competition among family and friends. Challenge kids to see who can read the most books. This friendly competition can teach a child valuable social skills and good sportsmanship. They can re-read their favorite book again and time the difference between the first and second reads. Use our handy Scholastic Reading Timer app to track your child's reading minutes.
8. Make family reading time a daily routine. Practice, practice, practice! Set aside time in the morning, after school or at bedtime, without distractions, and read as a family. Be sure to read aloud to your child as often as you can this year. The more you do, the more likely you are to show your child that reading is fun. Reading aloud helps children build their vocabularies, develop background knowledge they will need to understand the meaning of text when they read on their own, and inspire a lifetime love of reading! Mix it up with your favorite poetry, a news story, short stories, chapter books, and novels.
9. Organize a family and friends reading club. Reading clubs encourage all members to think critically about what they read and to help bring ideas for the next month's book. This will encourage children to work as a team and be open-minded about the opinions of others. Teachers can help out by sending "themed months" ideas paralleling students' current class work.
10. Host book-swap parties. Have your child collect books he or she has already read and have his or her friends do the same. With parents' permission, host a book-swap party at your house, with fun themes like "Fantasy Swap" or "Laugh Out Loud Funny Reads". Teachers can host a "book swap" party among students the beginning of each month. They'll walk away with not only new books, but also their friends' recommendations, fostering a team effort to getting "Book Fit."

For more daily tips and to win free books, "like" Scholastic's page on Facebook and visit the Book Fit calendar app. For more information about Scholastic, visit the media room.

Suggested Tweets:

• Scholastic declares January as "Get #BookFit" month. Will you take the pledge and help kids exercise their minds? http://bit.ly/BookFit
• Parents and Teachers, pledge to get kids #BookFit for 2014 with @Scholastic http://bit.ly/BookFit
• New year...new you... new books? How is your family getting #BookFit in 2014? Learn more http://bit.ly/BookFit

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