Surviving At Home

…I hereby proclaim this first week of summer break (at least for us in the northeast) to be Mystery Week.   

My favorite genre of books to read are mysteries and I credit my early days of reading Nancy Drew books for instilling that need to try to solve the mystery myself with critical and logical thinking. Unlike my daughter, I can’t wait to see the new Nancy Drew movie. Growing up I read almost all her books from the library and I was giddy when the Nancy Drew television series started (although the cutie pie Hardy Boys quickly won my allegiance!)

In an effort to increase an interest in the books again for their 75th anniversary, there’s a contest going on right now at Reading is Fundamental for an iPod Nano and some other prizes in honor of the Nancy Drew movie. If your kids are like my oldest daughter and they’re more interested in watching a movie or playing with electronic gadgets rather than expanding their vocabulary by reading a good book, RIF has a website especially for the 6-12 year old age groups called Reading Planet. It’s a great introduction to the mystery genre with a mystery detective poll and a chance to add their own mystery ideas and characters to The Case of the Missing Manuscript.

The coolest section of Reading Planet is called Crack the Case. The junior dectectives in training (your kids) are required to read 3 specific items (including Nancy Drew, yay!) and then they proceed to the Junior Detective Academy to begin their training with various games, including interviewing “suspects”, breaking alibis, and analyzing fingerprinnts. I can’t wait to get my 10-year-old working on this!

I’ll keep searching for mystery books and games for the preschool age group. Tune in tomorrow for those results!

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