I have always had a love for books and can remember spending entire Saturday mornings curled up in my bed reading Babysitter Club books until my mom asked if I was gonna come out of my room any time soon, hehe.  When I became a mom I knew that I wanted my girls to have every opportunity to achieve that same love of books because I knew that there were so many proven benefits of being read to and reading as a child.  For example did you know that children regularly read to by an adult arrive at kindergarten ahead of peers, scoring 10 points higher on standardized reading tests and that students who reported reading for fun every day had higher than average test scores. My first step was to make books available to my girls and so I slowly built them a mini library, but books aren’t cheap and with their ever changing interests and reading levels it has been difficult to keep up with their demand for new reading material without breaking the bank.  And yes there’s the actual library, but with three kids ages four and under in my house the chance of a book surviving and making it back as well as the ability to just get to a library on a frequent basis are practically nonexistent.  So what’s a parent to do?

Well if you happen to have an iPad the answer is simple.  Bookboard.

Bookboard is a children’s book service that encourages and supports a new generation of readers with a different approach to reading on digital devices.  This app is so awesome your kids will want to read instead of play Angry Birds – seriously!  Rather than providing a digital marketplace where families buy and download books indiviudally which can be very expensive, Bookboard offers an affordable subscription service that allows exploration of a vast, curated library.  A library accessible without leaving home?  Genius.

And here’s how it works.

Signing up for Bookboard is easy – it only takes 3 steps. Plus for a limited time you can sign up for one month of free access to the service with over 300 books available.  Once you have completed the simple sign up tell Bookboard about yourself and your family of readers.

Bookboard will then tune it’s extensive library which includes picture books all the way to chapter books for kids up to age 12 for each of your children.

And once the story is over your fun doesn’t have to be because Bookboard will suggest other books that may interest your little one based on what they just finished reading.

And as your kids read more, they’ll be rewarded with more books based on their reading habits and interests. Just wait until you see the excitement on their face when they “unlock” a new book.

A feature that parents are sure to love is the ability to track their child’s reading progress by using Bookboard’s fun metrics to motivate them to read even more.  But with such a fun app it won’t be that much of a challenge.

To get an even better idea of how this awesome app works by seeing Bookboard in action, check out the Bookboard video located on the homepage, simply click on the iPad image.   Once there make sure to sign up for your one month of free access because once you sign up and read a book with your kiddo by Feb 11th 2013 you’ll automatically be entered into a drawing for a chance to win an iPad mini.  Whatcha waiting for??

Thanks to Bookboard for sponsoring today’s discussion.