Believe it—summer is around the corner. Woo-hoo!
Around the corner! As in like just a few weeks away! It’s May! Pools open in May. Weather warms in May. Swim team registration starts in May. We buy bathing suits in May.
Wait. How can we even talk about ways to get your kids psyched for summer reading when school isn’t even out yet?
Many of us still have assessments to think about, big projects coming though, and a whole lot that has to happen between now and the time those kids come running through the school doors screaming, No more teachers, no more books. . .
Getting your kids totally psyched for summer reading is easy. Eeeeasy.
We’ve got be cool. We’ve got to be creative. And we’ve got to be careful.
But I’ve got the ‘how-to’ right here, and you’ll be surprised at how easy it is.
Here’s the skinny. . .
How to Get Your Kids Psyched for Summer Reading:
Five ways.
1. Start planning your Summer Reading Book Swap Party.
We do this every year, and every year it’s both a great way to say ‘good-bye’ to the school year and ‘hello’ to summer!
With just a wee bit of planning, anyone can throw a rockstar Summer Reading Book Swap or a Kick-Off Summer Reading Party or a Book-Lovers Book Bash any day of the week.
Send out evites, have your kids create simple invitations using an index cards and a simple ‘Come to Our Summer Reading Book Swap’ use a sample invite below:
2. Search for inexpensive or (even better!) free books.
For the next few weekends leading up to summer, go on a book search:
- visit yard sales or garage sales
- find local thrift shops
- reach out to your local groups–church groups, MOM Clubs, playgroups
- ask friends and family if they have books they’re ready to part with, and give them the ones you are ready to part with yourself.
Before you know it, you may have a whole new set of summertime books to call your own!
3. Celebrate the library.
Make sure your kids all have their own library cards. If they are old enough to write their names, they’re old enough for their own cards. And you know what? They will love, love, love having their own card.
Worried that they’ll lose their cards? I get it. Make special library card holders by punching a hole through a gift card envelope and threading a long piece of yarn through it. Kids can wear them around their necks (as necklaces) or pin them to their shirts on library trip days.
4. Make book-happy Summer Fun Cards:
Another early summer tradition in our house is to make Summer Fun Cards. We pow-wow after a picnic lunch and make plans for our long summer months.
This year, give your Summer Fun Cards an extra-special book-focus. Challenge each child to include at least three cards outlining new and unusual places –or ways—to read their books.
5. Get in on a summer reading challenge.
Many kids need a challenge to keep them interested and engaged, and that makes sense.
Consider challenging your child to:
- Master a series: Pick a series of books, and see if through the summer, your child can read the whole thing, from start to finish. A book series exists for every single reading level, so don’t think that your child is too young or too old for this challenge!
- Finish a list: Libraries, schools, and sites like Scholastic have entire reading lists to print and keep on hand. Wouldn’t it be a riot for your child to read an entire book list from beginning to end?
- Break a record: Set a goal as a family for weekly number of books read, hours logged, or chapters read, and check in each week. Check in each week and evaluate how you’ve done in relation to your goal, and
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Here’s to a reading-happy summer, my friends! Looking forward to lots of great ideas and some serious resource sharing!
Join us for the 2018 Smart Summer Challenge!
Please leave any of your Summer Reading questions, concerns, or super-awesome ideas below!
Check out a few other posts that may help you develop strong and healthy habits for your family:
- wait time
- my day, your day
- frozen peas
- kids who rock the kitchen
- kids who rock the laundry
- rest time
- gem jars
- arm circles
- noticing kids
- homework routine
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We are moving mid-summer across the country to Colorado. I’m nervous that my kids are starting in a new school system that may not appreciate my “kindergarten and summer are for fun” approach and that my kids will start the year behind their peers.
I know I need to take a more structured approach to working with both kids so that they stay on level and start 1st grade and 2nd grade feeling confident.
Reading is, of course, a big part of that and I think I’ll do a book swap party when we move in to our neighborhood in July.
We have great library systems in CO! Sign up for the Summer Reading program in your neighborhood.
yes, yes, yes! also a great idea–local libraries have FAB programs for summer reading! Thank you, Gayle!
Great ideas here! Summer reading is so important. I enjoyed the Google Hangout.
thanks, Michelle! So glad you could be there, and thank YOU for your amazing work over in the we teach: reading group on http://weteachgroup.com