This year’s Summer Reading theme is Reading Under the Stars, and is powered by EVEREADY®, the maker of batteries and flashlights, to encourage families to discover new and fun ways to explore reading outside this summer.
The day arrived, we were ready to host our Reading Under the Stars event in support and promotion of Scholastic Summer Reading Program and Summer Reading Challenge to get kids reading and ready for school! The parent packet was ready, the children packet was ready and we waited for our guests to arrive.
My children have been trying to keep up their reading this Summer and there is an app that you can use to track how many minutes your child is reading, just like I have been using. It’s called the Reading Timer App and can be downloaded on the Scholastic Summer reading website. Each of the children who attended our Reading Under the Stars Event also went home with a flashlight, provided by EVEREADY®.
Whether you are for or against the common core standards, they are indeed there and they are encouraging schools nationwide to kick up their reading and learning requirements –
- It has been shown that Summer Slide accounts for 85% of the reading achievement gap between lower income students and their middle to upper income peers.
- Summer reading lag can accumulate up to be an approximate two-year lag in reading by the time the child reaches middle school.
- Children in third grade who cannot read at grade level are less likely to graduate high school by age 18 when compared to proficient readers.
It is vitally important to get children to read ahead, encouraging a love in reading is how I raised my trio here. I have read to all three children since the day they were born and now, at ages 11, 7 and 5 they are lovers of books {for the most part}. My son’s have to have a book that really intrigues them while my daughter could read any encyclopedia sized novel in just a couple of days if it were about astrology or Greek Mythology! The best way to ensure that your child doesn’t fall into that Summer Slide in the reading and learning department is to partake in reading programs all Summer long, that is why Scholastic came up with this Summer Reading Challenge – so more families could have a chance to get their kids reading while having a goal set in place in a fun, fabulous way!
My family decided to do our part this Summer and get some kids together for a Reading Under the Stars event, and sadly we planned it a wee bit too early to catch the stars in the sky, but everyone was at my home until about 10pm at night enjoy a wide range of fun. We started off by letting the boys get in a bit of electronic time, because my middle child has autism and is in that “routine” of when a friend comes over they do get to play on the PS3 for a bit, so we allowed that while the adults and older kids gabbed for bit.
After that, we got all the kiddos outside and these photos were captured of the group while they waited for the fire to start; we had a camp fire to roast hotdogs over and make smores over! When we party, we party! This time it was Scholastic Book style partying though! After everyone had their smores. We played a bit more …
Then the kids sat down around the older two girls and the girls read a story to them. Sure, the boys were not having this “story reading time” idea, they are like “no way are we sitting to read a book!” I get it, friends are over, you want to run, you want to play. So us Moms made the deal – you sit and read this book, or at least listen to Ki and Chey read it, then you can go play tag, eat blueberries from the blueberry bushes and whatever, but we are having story time even if we don’t have stars to read under right now. The boys sat.
The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge is a free, online/mobile reading program that helps prepare kids for back-to-school by encouraging them to read every day all summer long. So head over to check out the Scholastic Summer Reading Website in full details, there are things for kids, things for parents and even an area for teachers!
The parents of the children who attended my event went home with packets full of information about the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge and I can only hope that they take part in this fabulous program!
Like Scholastic Parents on Facebook Follow Scholastic on Twitter and Instagram Follow the Summer Reading Challenge Pinterest Board Like the Summer Reading Challenge YouTube Playlist
So, tell me, how do YOU get your kids to continue reading during the Summer months?
I wrote more details about this program prior, so CLICK HERE to read my previous post regarding Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge.
My little one loves to read, so we do that every day no matter what, usually before bed. My daughter reads books on her Kindle, usually on car rides, but if it’s good enough, she’ll keep reading in the house.
My son went off to sleep away camp with 2 books to read for middle school. He better have read them!
thanks for the reminder!
Mitch
Love that Scholastic encourages kids to read throughout the summer. Their Summer Reading Program Under the Stars is so much fun!
What a fun gathering. My daughter could also ready a crazy thick book about things like bugs 😛 BTW, she loved Fly Guy when she was young.
Sounds like a great gathering. Keeping up reading in the summer is so important.
What a fun time – great way to get kids interested in reading! We are kind of boring – weekly trips to the library for a new book each week.
Looks like a lot of fun.My kids read most nights to me rather than me read to them,We have so many books to keep them busy.
I think it’s so important to get kids reading over the summer. We have required summer reading from school, so we have to get that done first.
It looks like the kids had a blast! I have a really hard time getting my daughter to read during the summer, I need to make it more fun!
What a great program. I love to encourage reading when it comes to my kids. Especially during summer.
Looks like a great program. Not only is it educational, it’sfree!
Love that Scholastic encourages kids to read throughout the summer. It’s so important to get kids reading all year long.
My toddler has decided he does not need me to read to him at night. After I finish reading books, he reads one of his board books by himself. It encourages the reading habit, and it’s fun to hear him recite the story. 🙂
Your REading Under the Stars turned out great! I am so lucky to have a house full of boys who enjoy reading. I hope they always have that love.
I love Scholastic. They are great for encouraging continued reading throughout the summer.
I totally fell off the reading wagon this summer….unless it was books at bedtime. We read three every night!
Summer reading programs are great. It’s important to be sure the kids don’t let their brains go on vacation for the entire summer. Those thinking caps have to be in tip top shape for the school year.
I loved Scholastic when I was kid! Reading in summer time is a must! Me and my son read together every night!
I knew that it was important to keep kids reading and learning during the summer, but I had no clue that it was THIS important. I can’t believe Summer Slide affects the learning gap so much.
As a teacher I can attest to the summer slide…children come back to school in September unsure of a lot. They don’t remember quite a bit of the previous year. And so, the first month or so is dedicated to recapping what was lost during summer. Some kids catch back on quickly, others fall even further behind. It is especially crucial for the weaker children to get some work in. I love that this program encourages reading everyday. It is so important.
Your reading under the stars event looks like so much fun! We’ve been doing lots of reading this summer.
We started out the summer not reading very much. But got to reading more recently. I love summer reading programs.
I love that Scholastic has this fun summer reading program! I know our library does something similar to this.
My kids signed up with your libraries summer reading program. They get a prize at each book level they reach, so that keeps them motivated to keep reading all summer long.
My son just finished a summer reading program. I’m so happy that both of my kids love to read. It’s really their favorite thing to do.
What a great way to get kids to be so eager to read. I think this is a great idea.
I would love this kind of things when my children were smaller as teens and young adults both love reading but it was a daily fight to teach them to love books
We read every day! My children have grown up loving books. Right now they are all about the Berenstain Bears books.
We are readers here, and have read to our son since birth. At four years old, he loves “storytime” with Mommy and Daddy, and I hope this love continues as he learns to read on his own!
I remember getting free pizzas for reading as a kid! I love programs like this.
I used to look forward to getting the Scholastic book order form at school. I would read every single book blurb and circle the ones I wanted. Then, I would go home and beg my mom for all of them. We had a few parties too.
We have a specific time during the day when we stop and read. I love your get together
I couldn’t stop my daughter from bringing me books if I tried! It really is a great issue to have!
Thankfully my girls love to read. I hope I helped that by reading to them as much as I could from day 1.
I pretty much force my kids to read in summer. They’d rather play Minecraft, but I’m making sure they’re reading too.
Looks like a fun time! We visit the Public Library a lot over the Summer. They do fun events to keep the kids reading.
You guys look like you had a blast, especially around the campfire! I haven’t had any trouble getting my daughter to read this summer, she has been stuck on reading anything written by John Green!
We had a blast doing our summer reading. I am bad though, we keep forgetting to log our minutes.
My kids really love to read and I hope they always love reading. Reading under the starts sounds awesome! I’m sure the kids had a blast!
That looks like a great program. Reading is sooo important.
We have a reading program here at the local library. My 5 year old loves it, and I hope she’ll continue to love reading.
My youngest LOVED Fly Guy. They were actually pretty cute. Great post!
I loved doing reading challenges when I was a kid. This challenge sounds like a GREAT idea.
I didn’t know that Scholastic had a reading program for the summer. We buy from them all year long though.
I’m lucky that both my boys still love to read. I don’t have to ask – they beg!
I loved reading challenges too- always a competitor! I like that this makes reading social too.