Motivating kids to read with fun Summer Reading programs

One of my biggest challenges over the summer is getting my son to read on a regular basis. Sure, during the school year he reads each night and turns in monthly book logs, but over the summer our schedules change – or got out the window entirely – and getting him to read for 30 minutes or more every day becomes a constant battle.

This year I tried to be prepared by finding new incentives for reading. I came across this Barnes & Noble summer reading program and the idea is simple, kids read and log their books, and when the log is full they can go to Barnes & Noble and pick a free book. The log only requires 8 books and that number was easy to swallow for my son. He loved the idea of getting to choose his own reward (there is a list of books they can choose from). So today he finished his log and off we went to Barnes & Noble to pick up his new book: Ricky Riccota’s Mighty Robot. Participating is simple, just print out the book log, fill in out and let your child use it to keep track of the books they read. Head into a Barnes and Noble store, choose your free book then head over to the checkout with your book and completed log. Of course, if you’re like us this trip will also include dragging your kids away from the new ninja turtle toy display, 30 minutes spent in the children’s section playing with the toy train table (you know, the one that’s identical to the the train table you recently gave away because your kids never, ever played with it) and a half dozen visits to the restroom which you frantically find after your son informs you that he’s had to go for the entire time he’s been playing trains and now can’t hold it another second. But, hey, your kid read 8 books on their own so maybe we can overlook the whole bathroom fiasco.

Barnes and Noble aren’t the only ones encouraging children to read this summer. TD Bank is offering $10 into a Young Savers account for reading and logging 10 books and Scholastic has a Summer Reading Challenge that allows children to unlock games and activities online when they reach weekly reading goals. I decided to use the programs separately, so J couldn’t log the same books for each one. Now that he’s finished Barnes and Noble we’ll start reading books for the TD bank program. And while you’re there take a look at the Savings Chart Printable. Maybe you can even convince your kids to use that saved money towards some new books! A girl can dream, right?