Summer Reading Incentives

Summer is upon most of you already. We have 3 more days of school next week and we can't wait. My kids usually bring home something from school at the end of the year encouraging them to keep reading during the summer. Sometimes school has offered some reward if they bring their completed list back (usually 50 books read in English and 50 read in Spanish) at the beginning of the following school year and other times we've just kept our own list and come up with our own prizes.

However, many companies also have reading programs and incentives for summer reading. Below are listed some of the ones that we've found and are going to try this summer.

Pizza Hut's BOOK IT! Sweepstakes, Reading program, games, tips to encourage reading.

Borders Books Double Dog Dare Summer Reading Form
Earn certificate for a Free Book.

Half Price Books Feed Your Brain Summer Reading Program
Earn $3 shopping cards to Half Price Books, each week starting June 1st thru July 31st.

Barnes & Noble
Earn a Free Book from a list of paperback titles available at the store.

TD Bank Offers $10 into a children's savings account for books read.

Scholastic has lists and info on summer reading.

Our local Dairy Queen and Public TV station have joined together for a reading incentive program. Check locally if either one of your's is doing the same.

Many public libraries also have summer reading incentive or programs to try. Check yours to see what they may offer.

You could certainly come up with your own reward based on pages, minutes, or number of books read. One summer we paid a penny a page to one daughter to encourage her to read. We ended up adjusting it to a penny per 5 pages because we were going to owe her over $100! Obviously she doesn't need anymore encouragement to read a good book. Maybe they earn a special outing with one of the parents, or something special to do with a friend. Be creative!

I bought little 3 ring folders and each kid decorated the outside of it how they wanted with as many stickers as they desired. Then we keep all their sheets inside so they can keep track of their reading.



Along these same lines, just in May we had a kids' book club with 6 moms and about 15 of our 25 combined total of children. We had boys and girls both ranging in age from 7 to 14. We read "The Candy Shop War" by Brandon Mull. This was the first time my kids have attended a book club and they LOVED it! Thanks Cindy for hosting. We all had a great time. They are ready for another one again this summer and so all of us moms are working on that. If you haven't ever held a book club with your kids I'd encourage you to give it a try.