Lazy summer days are perfect for encouraging your kids to read. Kids wander aimlessly around the house looking for something to do. So use these 5 tips to encourage them to open a book and begin reading.
5 Tips to Encourage Your Kids to Read this Summer
1. Join Reading Challenges
Libraries across the country set up summer reading programs for kids. Kids love these challenges! Some kids enjoy participating in a community activity while other kids get a kick out of the challenge itself.
Make a point of wandering into your local library and signing your children up for the summer reading program. While you’re there, ask the librarians if they know of any other challenges being offered by local businesses, like our FREE online class:
2. Read Every Day
Find a block of time for you and your kids to read every day. This can be an hour after lunch as part of a quiet time routine or time just before bed. Pull out books for you and your children to enjoy during this quiet hour.
You can set up this time a couple of different ways. If you have all older children, pull out the books and read. On the other hand if you have all younger children, use this time to read aloud picture books to your kids. Perhaps you have a mix of ages. Then try spending 15-30 minutes reading books silently before pulling out a chapter book to enjoy with your children.
Which ever way you go, enjoy a daily quiet hour or so curled up with a good book this summer.
3. Strew Books
Summer time is full of play and mischief. It’s also full of bored children wandering around the house looking for something to do. Grab the opportunity to strew books you think your children will enjoy around the house.
Leave art books near the art supplies. Strategically place a science experiment book in the kitchen. Leave a book on birds near the living room window. Grab a few chapter books for kids to read on trips.
Good books are the perfect cure for bored children!
4. Book Club
For a time my mother had a once a month book club day for the family. Every child was assigned a sibling. Sometime during that month, the child found and purchased a book to give to their sibling. Needless to say, she helped us find an appropriate book. Everyone got the gift of a book on book club day.
Try hosting a family book club yourself this summer. You’ll create strong bonds between your children, a giving spirit, as well as encouraging a love of reading all through hosting a family book club.
5. Bingo
Have you ever played Bingo using books? It’s a ton of fun! In each square, you place a description of a book. For instance you may assign the kids to read an animal book, a book with a red cover, or a book featuring an elephant.
The goal is to get a BINGO (5 horizontal, vertical, or diagonal squares in a line) or a black out (you cover the entire board). It’s your choice!
Here’s a BINGO sheet for you to use. Fill it out to reflect the books you want your kids to read. You can use specific titles or generic descriptions such as a red cover, award winning book, or history book. It’s up to you!
Use these 5 tips to encourage your kids to sit down and read this summer. Your children’s reading skill will improve, you’ll encourage a love of reading, and everyone will have fun.
How do you encourage your kids to read during the summer?
learning videos says
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Claire says
I appreciate the sincerity of this write-up of yours. Can’t wait to see more!
Maylee Robbins says
Reading is a super productive way to spend the summer! We do summer reading challenges and if the kids complete the number of books we decided they needed to read to qualify, we go on a family end-of-summer trip.