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Health & Fitness

Get Your Kids to Read this Summer

Kids don’t like to read? 

Yeah, I’ve got one in my bunch, too.  But you can't just let kids not read, ever, because they don't like it, right?  Here's a few ideas to give them a little motivation to get through summer reading assignments. 

  • Get them their own library card.  Something about having their own card and checking out their own books, makes my kids excited about going to the library.  This is more exciting to the younger ones, but the older ones do take more ownership for their books when they are on their own card.
  • Sign up for the library summer reading challenge.  This year, Montgomery County Public Library offers the kids a free ticket to a Fredrick Keys baseball game for signing up and win a prize for meeting their reading goal.  
  • Set a special reading time, 20-30 minutes a day.
  • Remind the kids that they can fulfill their reading requirements during times they would be doing nothing anyway - riding to camp, dropping off a sibling at camp, waiting at a swim meet, lounging around at grandma's, during adult swim at the pool.
  • Have family read-alouds.  Something like "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" and "Wonderstruck" by Brian Selznick is a fun option for children of varied ages - there's pages of text as well as full-page beautiful pencil drawings. 
  • Read plays and let the kids act them out.
  • Make your own reading challenge, maybe a certain number of pages or books or minutes.  My kids have set 1000 minutes as a goal. And you could be sneaky and throw in some math skills (adding, dividing, charting) to keep track.
  • Have your own family bookclub or parent/child bookclub with other friends.  I know a few friends who are in Mother/daughter bookclubs and it sounds like a fun idea. I think I'll try it before my girls are too old to want me hanging around with them (we're really close to that point, I think).
  • Get them to write their own stories.  Encourage them to find books they like, then write something similar - in the same setting or with the same characters, an extension of the story, or a new ending.
  • Set an example - let your kids see you reading and enjoying books.
Share any other tips that work in your house to get kids reading this summer.

Frances blogs regularly on Just Piddlin' at www.slackermomof4.blogspot.com.

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