January 2012 Challenges Roundup

This was a busy month. I started my Reading Aloud Everyday In 2012 challenge, kept up with my Canadian reading challenge, and signed up for three new challenges. Three!!! I think I may have gone a little nuts.

(Sidebar: "are you nuts" is my kids' new phrase, guaranteed to get them to giggle. Thanks Magic Treehouse.)

First things first, I am 29/31 days on my read aloud challenge. I missed 2 days due to ill health. The good news is that on the days I thought would be a problem (soccer! when my son sleeps before he gets home)  we have started reading in the morning and on the commute.  This is a good habit.

That means I added $10, $5 for each day, to my Kiva.org account. With my repayments I was able to make a loan to a taxi driver in Palestine.

Since July I have been doing the Canadian Reading Challenge #5. I knocked 4 Canadian books off my TBR list this month, 2 picture books and 2 adult books, including the Giller Prize winner, Half-Blood Blues.

Next is the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge 2012. I have 2/20 books marked off already, A Second is a Hiccup, and How a House is Built.

I also signed up for the Reading the World Challenge. This one is going to be great!  7 books in total, all from different countries, 3 from different continents, including one from my area and a book in translation. I'm at 0/7 so far but ordered my book in translation.  I am on the lookout for great books in English from around the world, so please load me up with suggestions.

The Read to Me Picture Book Challenge is one I just couldn't resist.  It is right up my alley, but I have made a goal to read 120 different books out loud to my kids this year. Eeep.

So far I have 5 picture books I reviewed this month, plus the first 5 Magic Treehouse books, and my daughter's favourite book We're Going on a Bear Hunt (how have I not blogged that yet?). I know there are more but I didn't keep track!  I better start writing them down from now on.

Anyway, that makes 10/120, a long way to go but doable I hope! 

Seems like a lot of reading to my kids, but I got some adult ones in too!  I'm lucky that a lot of my books are crossovers, so they work for many challenges.

Are you doing any reading challenges?