It’s no secret that our family loves to read. We have four 3 shelf bookcases jam packed with books; two for the boys and two for our books. And that doesn’t include the two boxes of books that Grandma Deb picked up at a yard sale a few weekends ago. Guess we need another bookcase, huh?
Over at TwitterMoms, they are talking all about summer reading right now. So, how do we ensure our kids read? For us, it’s pretty simple. We supply books that they are interested in reading. As a homeschooling family, we don’t worry about keeping our kids reading during the summer because we don’t take the summer off in the traditional sense.
Where Do We Get Our Books?
We go to our local library’s book sale a few times a year and the boys get to pick out whatever books they want. They easily fill a reusable bag to the brim with books. We pick up inexpensive books on Amazon, at yard sales, or in stores. We also trade books on PaperBackSwap. Most of the books we pick up are above the boys reading level because they are learning but it encourages them to learn faster.
How Do We Keep Our Boys Reading?
You might think it’s hard to get kids to read but we’ve had success by keeping the reading to things that are within the interests and reading level of each of our boys.
Reading Programs
Summer is always a big reading time for us mainly because there are so many places that emphasis reading during these few months. Last summer, our boys had a load of fun doing the summer reading program through our local library so we are doing that again this summer. They have logged over 24 hours of reading since the program started at the end of May.
Magazine Subscriptions
Little T has subscriptions to Highlights and WWE Kids. Drama King has subscriptions to Highlights High Five and National Geographic For Kids. The boy just love getting mail so getting a magazine subscription was a perfect solution for them.
Cooking
I am not the greatest cook in the kitchen but I can follow a recipe. The boys, primarily Drama King, love to help read the ingredients and directions from a recipe and tell me what to do. Right now, I still need to look over their shoulders and tell them the words they don’t know.
Electronic Readers and Games
We’ve had a few book devices and educational games that help teach reading fundamentals. These are great because the kids learn while having fun.
Closed Captions
This is something Little T really stumbled upon as a great learning tool. We’ve also used it to watch movies in other languages with captions in English.
What tips, tricks or strategies do you suggest to make sure kids to embrace summer reading?
