Free Stuff & Sanity? Amarillo’s Winter Reading Challenge Is Here.

So here we are, approaching that ever-dreaded winter break from school. Sure, the kids LOVE having 3+ weeks off, but as a parent, you're sitting there pulling your hair out just thinking about it.

How are you going to keep the kids busy for that amount of time, to where they aren't sucked into anything but video games and TV? You want them to enjoy it and have fun, but you know you have to keep their brains turned on.

The hardest part of that is having incentives to keep them in that vein. That's where the Amarillo Public Library comes to the rescue. Just like they do in the summer, they've got you covered.

The Winter Reading Challenge kicks off on Friday, Dec. 16, the last day of school for all kids in AISD. The challenge will be open to kids from four years old through high school, so they're making sure to incentivize and include everyone.

Students need to head to the library to get registered and pick up a reading log starting December 16. You can go to any public library in Amarillo to do this.

The challenge is simple. Kids sit down and read for 30 minutes per day from December 16 to January 9th, the final day of winter break. They'll color in a festive snowflake for each day they do this.

If they achieve the goal of reading each day, their reward will be a free movie ticket at Cinergy. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for them and for parents. You get 30 mins of sanity knowing the kids are doing something productive, and you get to save money on the next movie you go see.

Get to reading kids!