Before you start your Read-At-Home program, you need to do a little pre-planning. You need to decide a few basic facts- when are you going to run your program, for example. The time of year you run your program makes a big difference in the level of participation. Running a program in December, for example, is usually not a good idea, as December is a pretty busy month in it's own right. Generally, November and October are also somewhat difficult months to run a successful program- October has several school holidays in the beginning of the month, and the last week is usually devoted to Halloween madness. Similarly, November is a pretty short month; by the time you get a Read-At-Home program started, Thanksgiving is upon us. The whole week before Thanksgiving is a tough week in school- adding additional activities in this time is not a good idea.

My experience has been that the best (and most popular months) for a Read-At-Home program are January, February, and March. The advantage to January and March are that there are few days off in those months. Additionally, because the weather is not conducive to outside play, students are more likely to be indoors, and therefore, more prone to read as part of the Read-At-Home program. February has the same weather attributes; unfortunately, most schools have a "Mid-Winter" break around the second or third week. My opinion- to increase participation in a Read-At-Home program, run it in January or March.
As far as the length of the program goes, most programs run 3-4 weeks. Any shorter is too quick to have much permanent impact on behavior. If you run a lot longer, the program loses its "specialness"; it becomes just another part of the school year. Make it special, and keep it limited.                        Click here to go to next page