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Norway has gamified summer reading https://sommerles.no/svar It's quite popular in the first half of elementary school. You get points for registering read books (even if your parent read it for your, or audio books) and every week all the libraries put up a poster with this week's "code word" which you get points for typing into your profile, and whenever you level up ten levels you get a little prize you can pick up from the library (like a tiny toy, they had shark teeth one year)

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> get points for registering read books

> little prize you can pick up from the library

I am not convinced that this is really motivating to kids. Don't they have tons' of toys at home an in the library to play with already. Why would they care about tiny shark teeth.

Also i find the whole concept of 'read to get prize' cynical, cheap and manipulative. Don't want to manipulate my own child with these cheap tricks.

Don’t underestimate the power of junk prizes. It’s how McDonald’s has gotten away with selling overpriced kids meals for decades.

My kids love the novelty of garbage prize toys and while I think they are stupid, my kids get weirdly motivated by the promise of a trip to the dollar store.

manipulation or motivation? I suppose it's blurry.

But, I think the point is that once you get the kids into the habit (or help them build the skill) they'll maintain it later on. Even encouraging reading together has societal value.

So, maybe tiny shark teeth are good motivation - i have no idea. I'm not great at gauging what motivates kids. I still don't understand minecraft.

Do you have children? You tell them something is animal-related and they tend to get really excited. Even more so for dinosaurs. My five year old has no concept of money, but he does have a concept of “new thing I can play with”.

When I was a kid we had Book It. I got a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut for every 10(?) books I read. I read a lot of books! I also learned a lot along the way, and continued the habit of reading for fun through college.

I had similar qualms, but after seeing the actual effects I've changed my mind, at least as regards Sommerles (I'm less positive to other forms of gamification, especially if they're considered an alternative to non-gamified learning instead of a minor supplement in a well-rounded system). We already have prizes and competitions and these external structures for sports and such. People send little kids into soccer tournaments, we just make sure the rules aren't too strictly enforced and the major part of the reward is for just playing.

I have a kid who loves listening to stories but isn't at all motivated to read alone – and probably would not have read a single book alone this summer if it wasn't for Sommerles. Maybe it's not motivating for all kids, but I'm sure happy it's helping my kid get some much-needed reading practice. I also think you underestimate children. My other kid, already a self-motivated reader, re-read short books really fast to get all possible prizes within the first week (librarian eyebrows were raised). Who was doing the manipulation here? :-)

> much-needed reading practice

why is it 'much needed' ? let them chill man..:)

when i was a kid, reading was gamified by pizza hut through the 'book it' program.

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