Story baskets are an excellent tool for toddlers and preschoolers, but they can also be helpful for older children — practicing speech, storytelling skills, imaginative play, developing early literacy skills, and more. They can be as simple or as complex as you like and don’t have to cost anything to put together. Just use found objects from around your home and books you already own or can check out from the library to fill it. Simple, inexpensive, and a great way to encourage fun reading time!

What to Include in Story Baskets

When I fill up a story basket, I begin with the basket itself and the book I want to highlight. Next, I flip through the book and look for key characters or objects that help tell the story.

For example, in The Very Hungry Caterpillar it would be a caterpillar, a leaf, a lollipop, cheese, watermelon, and a few other similar items. Then, I gather as many of the items as I can find. I can usually do this by going through our toy and craft supplies to find play food, puppets, figurines, etc. These items go into the basket with the book. If I can’t find a key item, I will cut something out of foam or maybe use a picture from a magazine.

If my child is working on a particular skill such as beginning letter sounds or sight words, I will include relevant letters in the basket as manipulatives as well.

How might you use a story basket?

This depends on the age of your children. When I first began making story baskets, we started with one book and focused on the items to go with that. As my daughters got older, it became more of a themed basket with several books and hands-on items.

How to Use Story Baskets

Here are some activities that we’ve done:

Include a favorite book (one they already know) with a few props that go along with the story for your child to tell in their own words. Or they could follow along with the props as you read aloud.

You can put in random items and have your child make up a story using some or all of the items in their story.

Have your child pick out an object at random and tell or write something about it.

Leave the basket out for your child to discover. Change it out when it no longer seems to hold their attention.

Bring a story basket along on car trips, while running errands, waiting at the doctor’s office, and waiting in restaurants.

Allow your child to choose the book/items and YOU continue the story.

Some of our favorite preschool to early elementary books that lend themselves well to story baskets are:

• If You give a Pig a Pancake
• Goodnight Moon
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• The Gruffalo
• Fairy Tales
• Bible Stories

I’ve been doing this for years with my daughters and they are always a hit. We take a delight-directed approach in our homeschool, so I build story baskets and unit studies based on their interests. It’s like a treasure chest of learning centered around great books!

Have you used story baskets? Let us know in the comments!

Sara is a homeschooling mom of three girls. She writes at Heart and Soul Homeschooling, sharing ideas for learning that encourage creativity, curiosity, character, and connection. She is an author, speaker, and homeschool consultant. You can find her on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and her Amazon author page.

Check out more Summer Reading Ideas!

The post Use Story Baskets to Make Reading Come to Life! first appeared on True Aim.

School vacations, when you are freed from the constraints of busy schedules, is a great time to explore the world together through literature. Diverse children’s books can help provide a window into other ways of life, explaining differences but also allowing children to understand that we have much more in common than we realize.

Reading books about other cultures can:

• encourage children who don’t often see themselves represented in books
• foster empathy with those who may at first seem different
• reduce bullying by teaching respect for others
• spark curiosity about other ways of life
• raise awareness about challenges others may face

Travel the World Through Books This Summer

Now that you are excited to travel the world through books with your kids, you may be wondering how to get started! Here are some questions to consider when you are looking for quality multicultural books for children:

• Does the book include people of color or characters from other cultures/nationalities? (Even better, are these main characters, not just supporting ones?)
• Does the book rely on stereotypes or help break them down?
• Does the author come from the culture they are writing about, or have deep personal knowledge of it?

The great news is that your local library is a treasure trove of diverse literature that you and your family can dive into this summer. Your children’s librarian can help get you started, plus we have compiled diverse summer reading recommendations from bloggers around the world! This annual book list is sorted by age group, so you can be sure to find books perfect for you and your kiddos. Follow along this summer, plus be sure to visit the summer reading lists we have been creating since 2015!

Books are a wonderful jumping off point for exploring other cultures. Once your child’s curiosity is piqued, you can explore further. You might, for example, sample foods or make crafts from that culture, or trying to connect locally with neighbors who are from that area.

Want to raise a curious child who is respectful of others? Head to your local library and travel the world through books! Through reading about other cultures, you can nurture a sense of wonder about the world as well as foster empathy for those that may at first seem different.

What country would you like to explore through books with your kids this summer? Let us know in the comments!

Leanna is a homeschooler with three sweet, funny, rambunctious children. She and her husband, who is from Costa Rica, are raising their children to be bilingual and bicultural but more importantly to be “world citizens.” Leanna is the founder of Multicultural Kid Blogs and also maintains her personal blog, All Done Monkey

Check out More Summer Reading Ideas Here!

The post Travel the World Through Books with your Kids! first appeared on True Aim.

Most of the time once we’ve moved on from a particular chapter or page, we wouldn’t dare even think about going back to it to see what we’ve missed. When we don’t look backwards in books, we miss key details. Therefore, we’re only getting a piece of the entire puzzle of the material that we’ve previously read.

Summer Reading Strategy: Read Those Missed Pages For More Information

Homeschooling 7 children is definitely no easy task. We do a lot of group reading and have many oral discussions. Since so much time is spent on those particular areas, we tend to skip some things in our reading at the moment that we don’t deem to be useful or helpful to our discussion or assignment.

Once the summer time rolls around, I often think of reading material that I feel my kids would enjoy in those 2 months that we lighten our school load. Summer reading is a great way for them to keep their knowledge of vocabulary and comprehension skills sharp.

One day a light bulb went off for me as I pondered a summer reading list for them. Why not just have them use the same books for the summer that we used during reading class? Nothing extra to buy and nothing extra to assign that they weren’t already familiar with. Perfect idea. For example, in history we’d covered the Middle Ages in 2 chapters in our book. I didn’t find it to be relevant at the time to cover the list of wars or the endless list of names of people listed that went over and beyond the few people we’d already covered.

The perfect time to read and learn the list would be the summer months. They could also flip back and read the chapter we skipped about a lot of wars in the past. We’d covered almost 10 in class, but hey, learning more during the summer wouldn’t hurt at all.

In science we had skimmed our chapters on oceans because we’d studied them in the past. Well, I had them to go back and read about the various underwater volcanoes and formation of islands because we didn’t cover that part in class. Since the children were already familiar with a bit of oceanography, them going back to read the missed information was pertinent to completing their mental picture about oceans. There were a lot of interesting facts that they came to me with and discussed once they went back to read the pages independently.

In our literature class, we’d studied a few poets from the southern part of the US. The children were delighted to flip through their poetry books and read about the few poets that we didn’t cover. That led to them looking into their biographies of those famous writers. My kids even took it upon themselves to go and find books that we didn’t complete a few years ago and chose their own pages to read over. It was amazing how much initiative that they took to read without my input.

LEARN NEW DETAILS IN SUMMER READING

I couldn’t believe all of the little facts and details that we missed in our plight of trying to get school done and touch on all the basic skills. It’s a simple process. I told my kids to “Go find the books that we used in class and find the skipped chapters.” From that little instruction, they became totally independent readers in those moments that it was too hot to play outside. They were reading books that I had forgotten all about. It’s worked wonders for us and keeps the kids constantly learning new facts and new words.

We now do oral reviews after they’ve read something new and their recall is amazing. They see me involved but in a way they’re choosing what to learn. We use summer reading to serve 2 purposes; Read for information and read to complete the lessons from before. I will never change the way we do summer reading at our house now. It’s perfect for our family.

Can you think of a way to utilize those skipped reading sections in your child’s summer reading? I’d love to read your replies in the comment section. Thanks so much for reading this!

Tal Hoover is the founder of Blessed Grove Homeschooling and Academy. She is a professional educator, curriculum writer and homeschooling mother of 7 children. Her spare time is spent creating and publishing educational resources and operating her small baking business. She has over 14 years of home education under her belt, and nearly a decade of experience in tutoring, online education, and writing. Tal specializes in teaching Biblical and world history, multicultural studies, comparative religions, art history, and of course, professional artisan cookie decorating. She has a bachelor’s degree in Leadership and also holds multiple certificates. Mission work, mentoring and empowering not only her own family, but others is her top priority. She loves connecting with those that are seeking to educate their own children and become entrepreneurs to promote self-sufficiency.

blessedgrovehomeschooling.com
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The post Unique Summer Reading Strategy for Homeschoolers! first appeared on True Aim.

Sound-it-out does not always work. Parents have forgotten helpful reading strategies and are no longer aware of using them. One example is rereading.

Rereading a word or sentence often clarifies what was just read. Adults do this without thinking about rereading as a comprehension strategy.

Help for Early Readers

Sound-it-out uses isolated sounds to read a word. Take my name, for instance. Carolyn would be ca-air-oh-lul-ya-nin. Try pronouncing that all together, and the result is nothing like my name. The word “math” sounds out to mum-ah-tah-huh. Isolated letter sounds alone do not comprise most words. There are just too many irregular words and letter blends for sound-it-out to be the only strategy, for even beginning readers.

Do children need phonics? Yes. Do children need to simply memorize sight words? Yes. Phonics is more than isolated letter-sound combinations. For instance, think of words that begin with stra (strawberry, stranger, strategy) and it is easy to see sounding out s-t-r-a for each word would require too much time.

There are many letter combinations children will learn, and some with have different sounds than isolated letter sounds, such as kn (knight, knee, knob). There are silent letters and special sounds for letter combinations. Frequently, q is usually followed by u, so the sound for qu must be taught (queen, quick, quack).

Another common assumption is that a child knows his or her letters by practicing capital letters. Most of reading is actually lower-case letters. Lower case letters should be taught before capital letters. Capital letters will be learned as children learn to write names, proper nouns, and begin writing sentences. A child who knows only “big” letters is not ready to learn to read. Lower case letters and their sounds are important to know.

Word-solving Strategies Beyond Sound-it-out to Use with Beginning Readers

The reason children need to know more word-solving strategies than sound-it-out is so they begin to self-correct when reading. A child who cannot self-correct while reading is not going to make as much progress as a child who can do so.

At school, if a child was reading aloud and stopped reading perhaps five or six times during one paragraph, I knew an adult at home was jumping in to tell the word to the child. Telling a child words is quick and easy, but will not help children to learn how to help themselves.

Yes, I told words sometimes. English language learners, newly emergent readers, and a child who had tried some strategies and was frustrated are some cases when I told a word. However, as a steady diet, telling children words does not help advance reading skills. There are many word-solving strategies that help for early readers. Every child will not “take” to every strategy, and should use the ones that make sense to that child. Here are a few to try.

1. Skippy Frog

Skip it, skip it, then go back and read it. Adults do this, also. When reading a news article or new information and finding an unknown word, we do not stop and give up. We do not put down the book, article, or newspaper. We keep reading.

This word-solving strategy is one children understand and like to use. I think it is second to sound-it-out. When reading, maybe the child puts a finder on the unknown word, finishes reading the sentence, and then goes back to try the whole sentence again.

This is reading a word in context as meaning is important in reading. Some children equate reading “fast” with being a “good” reader, so it is important to tell children that good readers use what they know to learn what they do not know.

2. Stretchy Snake

Look at all the letters in the word before saying it out loud. When a child gets to the first letter of an unknown word and stops reading, the child is not looking through the whole word. He or she has not learned to self-correct and gives up. Somehow the child knows the word is difficult or unknown and will say the first letter.

In this case, the child must be encouraged to look at all the letters in that word. Stretchy snake is one name for this strategy. Similar to sound-it-out and is done silently (at least at first). Looking at each letter, the child whispers the sounds in his or her heads. Often, just seeing all the letters and trying some silent sounds, the child will be able to say the word.

Adults automatically puzzle over the letters in a new or unfamiliar word, and can often then read the word. Of course, adults do not think about stretch snake when using this strategy as it has become automatic.

3. Noticing Owl

Find a little word in a big word. Ahh, the dreaded syllabication strategy, but more simply stated for children to find it useful. For instance, in the word Mississippi, the child can find miss, is, and sip. A hard word becomes more manageable.

At school, this decoding strategy might be called Chunky Monkey so children will chunk the sounds together. However, for emergent readers, this could be a difficult idea.

Children delight in finding little words in big words and often show the parent or teacher such discoveries. They find the fact owls can turn their heads 180 degrees (or more) fascinating. So, a little word can become a clue towards solving an unfamiliar word. They like to imitate animals, so twisting their heads while looking through a big word can help them to understand the strategy.

Results for Early Readers!

Parents are amazed at the reading progress children can make when several word-solving strategies are used. Children will begin to self-correct and help themselves learn to read. A mistake when oral reading is an opportunity to help a child learn a new word-solving strategy. Soon, children will automatically employ several word-solving strategies and make advances in reading.

Carolyn Wilhelm is a wife, mom, and grandmother. She has a BS in Elementary Education, an MS in Special Studies of Gifted Children, and an MA in Curriculum and Instruction K-12. She was a National Board Certification Middle Childhood Generalist 2004-2014. She is also a licensed, certified teacher in Minnesota through 2021. Retired, she now volunteers at an elementary school and runs TheWiseOwlFactory.com. 

Check out More Summer Reading Ideas Here!

The post Help for Early Readers: Strategies Beyond Sound-it-Out first appeared on True Aim.

One summer, it only required reading ONE book the entire summer. The kids ran out of motivation in the first week.

Then, they introduced a ticket system to earn rewards. That seemed fair, except it was based on the number of books read each week. The children had to read at least three books a week to even enter the raffle for the prizes. There were no parameters on length of books.

How to Host a Family Summer Reading Club!

My children quickly got frustrated when they were ready long novels and their peers were racking in the tickets reading short comic books. That is when we decided to host our own family reading club and ditch the dollar store prizes for real motivation and excitement.

Set the Date

Decide when everyone will begin and finish reading. Your reading club can last a week or the entire summer. Setting a schedule, gives everyone an opportunity to plan out their reading. Pick a reasonable amount of time. A few weeks is ideal.

If the club goes too long, it loses momentum. If it is too short, there’s not enough time to really get sucked into the world of reading.

Decide on a time frame that fits your schedule. We’ve done anything from ten days to six weeks! A mini reading club is a great for the winter months, when you just need a break from school! It’s also an option for when life gets busy with a new baby or move. The learning keeps going even when you can’t teach.

Family Summer Reading Club: Create a Point System

Next, you need to decide how readers will earn rewards. Since we have a large age span, we had to level the playing field a bit. Counting books didn’t work. We give points based on one short book or 20 pages of a longer book. This motivates the older children to delve into great literature without feeling like they have short changed themselves, as their younger siblings zoom ahead.

Here is our point plan:
2 points for a book or 20 pages read independently
2 points for a book read to a younger sibling
3 points for a complete audiobook
1 point for each chapter of family read-alouds

Family Summer Reading Club: Prizes, Prizes, Prizes

Now, here’s what the kids really want to know! What are the prizes? You don’t need expensive prizes. A family favorite reward, in our home, is a living room camp out. We set up air mattresses in the living room, read stories by flashlight, and watch a movie. It cost nothing, but it is always the most requested! So, living room camp outs cost 45 points!

Here are some other ideas:

• Treat from the dollar store
• Watch an extra show
• Dinner at the beach
• Play date
• Family hike
• Pick what’s for dinner
• Afternoon hike
• Family movie night, including popcorn
• Two days off of handwriting practice
• New book or audiobook
• Campfire dinner
• Day off of chores
• Afternoon at the park
• Make your own pizza party
• Ice cream cone
• $5 gift card to the dollar store
• Eat whatever you want for breakfast–yes, cookies count!

As you can see, most of these are very inexpensive. Most of them are free! The children are working more for experiences than plastic prizes. So this books club is cost effective and doesn’t create clutter. Both are big wins for homeschooling families.

Add it All Up

On the last day, collect the tally sheets. Give each participant their grand total and see who earned the most points. Celebrate finishing the book club. Pick something simple! The best part is spending the time together and celebrating in your accomplishments.

Set a time frame for redemption of prizes. This may seem unnecessary, but it prevents mom or dad from losing track of which prizes have been awarded. Nothing is worse than a child claiming a year later that he never got his prize, and you can’t remember if he did or not. This will keep up the excitement but also help transition back to everyday life.

How are you motivating your family reading this summer?

Jennifer Elia, homeschool consultant, mentor, blogger, and Amazon best selling author, is Founder of Sound Foundations Homeschool which is dedicated to giving homeschool moms the tools they need to thrive in their home education career. Jennifer provides one-on-one consulting, personalized and original curriculum plans, and practical advice for those just beginning their homeschool journey, as well as those who just need a little boost. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and four children whom she has been educating at home for the past 10 years. You can find Jennifer on Facebook and Pinterest.

Check out more Summer Reading Ideas Here!

The post How to Host a Family Summer Reading Club! first appeared on True Aim.

Some days you need to kick things up a notch, and one of the best ways to do that is by adding a little excitement to your summer reading.

Now, I’m going to assume that you don’t completely suspend all learning during the summer months. In our home, we have to keep the semblance of a routine for sanity’s sake. We can be lazy and enjoy summer for a few days, but then chaos sets in, the house is trashed, and no one has clean underwear. So, we opt to keep a general routine going during the summer.

3 Summer Reading Tips

One of the parts of our homeschool that stays with us all year round is reading. During the regular homeschool year, we are a part of a book club.

The kids read a novel each month and then meet for a “party school” to celebrate the book. But in the summer, those book clubs are suspended, and the enticement to read just isn’t as strong. So, over the years we’ve come up with some creative ways to add some excitement to our summer reading plan.

Head Down a Rabbit Trail

Have you ever read a book and the character mentions something in passing, and you wonder what they were talking about?

This happens to the kids often when they are reading books set in different cultures or different time periods. They would often stop in the middle of the family read aloud to ask questions, which lead to mini-investigations. We would look up the particular topic, and it would invariably lead us down a new “rabbit trail” of discovery. Many times we would get lost on this exploration for days. And, it was all because we “read it in a book.”

1. Summer Reading Tip:

Look for topics that might be interesting to investigate in your current reading. Listen to the questions your kids ask and feed their curiosity by going down your own rabbit trail.

Add a Little Magic Dust

Think back on your school days. What’s your earliest memory?

One of my earliest memories was in first grade. The entire class headed to the school cafeteria kitchen. We mixed water and salt until it dissolved and then we put it in an aluminum pie pan. The pie pan was then placed on a hot stove burner. We watched as the water evaporated, and the salt reappeared. At least, this is what I remember happening. I can still smell the air as the water heated. I can see the pan clearly in my mind, and I remember the principle well.

Hands-on activities that let children participate in their learning are great ways to help kids remember important principles. Just like my first-grade science experiment, kids can focus on the “how” and “why” and better learn the “rule.” You can do the same with a good book.

2. Summer Reading Tip:

Look through the book your child is reading. Are there foods mentioned that you could teach them to cook? What science experiment could you use to show why or how something worked in the book? Did your characters notice the trees, plants or animals around them? Could you go on a nature hunt for some of those mentioned?

Celebrate the Book and Its Characters

We have a rule in our house: you can’t see the movie until you’ve read the book. I’m adamant about it; my husband is a little lax. The point is that it is a way to create enthusiasm for a book. Don’t those previews look awesome? Well, let’s read the book and then have a family fun night at the movies!

Sometimes we all need to be inspired to read a good book. Maybe it’s not a genre we usually enjoy. Perhaps we’re just being lazy and want to watch YouTube videos all day. Whatever the reason, a little celebration can go a long way. So after each book we read, we have a “party school” and celebrate the book.

3. Summer Reading Tip:

What kind of fun snacks does your book inspire? Can you decorate like the era or setting? Do you have clothes you could use to dress up like the characters? Choose something the character did and see if you can replicate the idea at home.

It’s Summer, Take it Easy

By adding a little excitement to your summer reading, you can keep the summer fun and your home drama-free (well, it won’t help the mountain of dirty dishes or laundry, but you get the point). But, don’t let adding excitement become overwhelming to you as a mom. You don’t have to be elaborate, and you don’t have to do everything I mentioned. Just take a day or two to throw in a fun activity.

And, if you want to take it really easy, I’ve got you covered. Hop on over to Literary Adventures for Kids and check out our selection of online family book clubs. Just pick a book, and I have done all the work for you. Find rabbit trails, magic dust, and party school ideas at your fingertips. Your kids can even work through them independently.

No matter what you choose to do, remember that a little excitement can go a long way. Your kids will remember these moments more than they will their current YouTube sensation, and you will enjoy the way their faces light up.

Dachelle is a working homeschooling mom of 3 in the South. She is the owner of Hide The Chocolate, a blog about her adventures in homeschooling and parenting. She is also the author of dozens of online book clubs for kids from preschool to high school at her site Literary Adventures for Kids. You can often find her reading a good book (or even sometimes just an okay book) and enjoying a jar of Nutella — don’t judge. You can also find her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest

Check out More Summer Reading Ideas Here!

The post 3 Summer Reading Tips to Add Excitement! first appeared on True Aim.

Check out More Summer Reading Resources Here!

The post What Relaxed Summer Reading Looks Like first appeared on True Aim.

When I first became a mom, I had no idea how important reading to my child was. It wasn’t until I had a preemie that I started researching. After reading, and watching documentaries, I learned that it is one of the MOST important things you can do.

10 Ways to Reignite Your Child’s Passion for Reading!

However, some children just aren’t used to doing it. Or maybe there are so many other distractions, that they are uninterested. It could be that they used to love reading and after a few years in school, they avoid it like the plague. 

Whatever the reason your child isn’t enjoying reading as much, here are 10 creative ways to help them get excited about reading again!

1. Make a Reading Routine

This might sound counter intuitive, but building reading into your routine will help your child get used to it and learn to love it again. Sometimes, when school or other distractions come in, children forget how much they like it. Building reading time into what you are already doing will help your kids come to expect it.

When they know that you will be reading a story at a certain time of day, like during meal time or when they are in the bath or shower, they will feel like something is missing if you skip this time! It will be a welcome respite from the business of the day. They will start to request it again, especially if it is a story that they enjoy. 

2. Learn Some Book Marketing

Many parents forget that their are competing against some of the most sophisticated marketing techniques when it comes to other forms of entertainment. TV, apps, computer games, toys, they all have huge teams that put a lot of energy into making kids want to use and watch their products. We need to start getting savvy when it comes to making books look more appealing.

The way we read is one way we can market books to our kids better. If we aren’t good at reading aloud, we could invest in some high quality audio books. We could subscribe to a site that offers an audio library! Most of the time, the voice over for audio books is very well done and helps the story come alive for our children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Raising Raving Readers (@raisingravingreaders) on Mar 8, 2019 at 8:49am PST

We also need to think about the way we display books in our home. If we can make books look more appealing by displaying them in a way that attracts our children, we will catch them picking up a good book more often. Displaying the covers of books as much as possible will help with this.

Finally, we can design specific places in our home that are for reading. These spaces make children want to relax and grab a book or magazine and flip through. It’s an area that pulls everyone in and they just can’t help but read there! This may take some trial and error and also revamping from time to time, but it will be worth it!

3. Peak Their Interest with Strategic Storytelling

My husband grabbed a book off the shelf one day and called my daughter over. She didn’t really want to read, but it was something he didn’t do all the time, so she was intrigued. He started reading to her and she was captivated by the story. He got to a really exciting part of the story where someone was close to getting captured or in danger. Right before we could learn what happened, he slammed the book SHUT!

She was shocked! What was going to happen?! Hey! That’s not how you read! However, this strategic reading made her want to read the book on her own so she would discover what had happened! It was a little bit more advanced than she was used to reading, but she was determined. My husband had achieved his goal of reigniting her passion for reading!

4. Get Some Help to Ignite their Passion for Reading

You don’t always have to be the one reading to your children. Take the pressure off! Ask people for help. This could be as simple as finding a podcast that reads aloud to children, a youtube channel, an online book club, or friends and family that can read via Facetime!

Enter to Win!

5. Use Summer to Set Up for Success

During the summer, so many people are worried about summer slide. Avoiding it is easier than you think. You simply have to read! Use the summer to start a new reading routine, set up your reading spaces, go to the library more, or bring books on your road and camping trips. Take the summer to give your kids that passion for reading back!

6. Join a Book Club 

If you child is older, they might like meeting with other children to discuss a book and do activities related to it. If you don’t know of one, you could start your own! You might not be comfortable with that, so you can join our online book club and enjoy all the benefits of a regular club, but on your own time!

Check out the Raising Raving Readers Book Club!

7. Give Reading Incentives

More than chores, I would rather reward my children for reading! The ROI is huge! Not only are you going to improve their vocabulary, you are establishing how important reading is in their lives. 

Great incentives for reading are ones that encourage more reading! What does that mean? Well, it could be that the incentive is SO motivating that the child wants to do more and more of it. It could also be that the reward encourages more reading, like new books or a trip to the book store.

Whatever you choose to do for an incentive, make it really good, but moderately difficult to achieve. You could also encourage your children along by having a smaller reward related to a bigger reward so they get just a taste of success and want the whole!

8. Libraries are Your Friend

The more you can use your local library, the more your kids will love it! There are SO many fun things that libraries do. Mark all the events on your calendar so that if you don’t have much to do one day, you can make a quick trip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Raising Raving Readers (@raisingravingreaders) on Apr 14, 2019 at 9:03am PDT

Story times at the library aren’t just for little kids. A good picture book never hurt anyone. So bring your older children along and if it is too babyish for them, they can pick up a book from the young adult section!

9. Pick the Best Books

If you’ve ever purchased or borrowed books that your child doesn’t really like, you know this part can be really hard. I’ve got your back! You can follow my pinterest board for great children’s book lists, join my VIP customer group for in-depth reviews, or request a personalized book list. 

10. Monkey See Monkey Do

This is true for everything we do. Our children look up to us whether we like it or not. They can’t help it! We are their heroes. If we want them to love reading, we have to model that in our own life. Maybe we need to reignite our own passion for reading? What have you read lately that has helped you be a good example for your children?

Get More Ideas to Encourage Reading in Your Home!

The post 10 Ways to Reignite Your Child’s Passion for Reading! first appeared on True Aim.

How do you do this?

Read the story or book ahead and then either brainstorm an idea or surf the internet for ideas to enhance the story. Just about anything goes! There are endless ways to bring books to life.

Making Summer Reading Adventurous

1. Try a new recipe; from astronaut food to flatbread, there’s always a food activity to be found for any story.
2. Take a trip to a living history museum or book setting; forts, castles, beaches, parks, mountains, plains, forests, etc.
3. Crafts – this is one of our favourites! Paint a picture, make a model of a building, make clay pottery, learn cross stitch, build a bench or sword, there’s no shortage of ideas for this.
4. Dress up as one of the characters and spend the day in their shoes – how would they react to your everyday situations? From superheroes to Vikings, don your cape and horns and have fun.
5. Once you’ve read the book, watch the movie – there are many books based on movies and vice versa. See if the way you pictured the story in your mind’s eye is how it’s been portrayed by the director.
6. If you happen to live near the location of a book, set up a post-card or letter exchange with someone and write to them as if you are one of the characters. What would they say? How would they speak? We recently did this, pretending we were about to set sail on the Titanic for its maiden voyage, using a postcard of the Titanic advertisements.
7. Learn about the author’s life and interests. This may expand the genre of your child if they are stuck in a particular one. To find that their favourite author is inspired by another, can be enlightening.
8. Set up a special reading nook – a tent, bean bag, playhouse, under a tree, a step, or another location. Make it special with a sign, fairy lights, and a bottle of water to keep hydrated.
9. Act it out! Have the kids put on a play for you, their grandparents, friends, or to record and turn into a movie. Have them act out the book. If they are older, they could even write the screenplay and design a set.
10. Check out Castle View Academy, where there are dozens more ideas on specific book activities.

Children can choose their own books or you can help them choose something in a genre they enjoy so they are more interested in the topic. Then set up a reading nook and let them read while you prepare the activities. Double the fun by inviting a friend to join in, too. Once children get the idea that books don’t have to simply be read as a chore, but that you can have fun with them, they’ll be sure to come up with great ideas, too.

What are ways you’ve made summer reading fun for your children? Share your ideas below in the comments!

Check out all the posts in our Summer Reading Series!

Crystal McClean is a Canadian homeschooling her family in Northern Ireland. Her family loves to learn about culture and they find it fun to do this by reading books, creating activities and recipes as well as attending cultural events when they can. When she isn’t home with her family she’ll be at the writing letters at library, taking photos at the local camera club, or counting wildlife along the loughshore with friends. You can learn more about their adventures at Castle View Academy or follow along via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.

The post 10 Enhancements to Make Summer Reading Adventurous first appeared on True Aim.

Summer Reading Ideas

Thanks to these amazing moms, we have over 30+ Summer reading ideas for you during this month’s Mom’s Library! Reading is SUCH an important activity for children, not just for the academy benefits, but because it also reduces stress (over 50% from reading just 6 minutes), increases emotional processing skills, and establishes a strong parental bond. Which post do you think will be your favorite? Come back and check them out when they are live! (posts will go live as they are published each week):

Read Through the Summer Using Virtual Book Clubs

Addressing Hi-Lo Readers in the Upper Grades

10 Enhancements to Make Summer Reading Adventurous

10 Ways to reignite your child’s passion for reading!

What Relaxed Summer Reading Looks Like!

Unique Summer Reading Strategy for Homeschoolers!

How to Add Excitement to your Summer Reading

How to host a family summer reading club

Strategies for Helping Children Read Beyond Sound it Out

Travel the World with Your Kids through Books

Using Story Baskets to Make Reading Come to Life

Each mom’s library series includes a fabulous giveaway! This month we are giving 4 sets of best selling books grouped by ages! You can check the list of them out below!

Mom’s Library Giveaway

4 lucky winners of the giveaway will receive one set of books:

Giveaway

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Click here for more articles in the Mom’s Library Series!

The post (Giveaway) 30+ Summer Reading Ideas! first appeared on True Aim.