This Summer Reading Under the Stars post is brought to you by Scholastic. All opinions are my own.
I can’t think of a better way to encourage kids to do a bit of summer reading than to turn it into a party, can you? This 4th of July weekend, we had a little Summer Reading Under the Stars party on my back deck. While some of our guests were unable to make it due to weather issues (we had some terrible storms during the week before), we still had a fun little group for our party. Take a look at my tips for setting up the best Summer Reading Under the Stars party, then check out pictures from my event!
Host an Amazing Summer Reading Under the Stars Party
As the name implies, your Summer Reading Under the Stars party takes place at night, so there are a few things to consider when setting up. Obviously, you’re going to need invitations if you’re hosting a large bash. I did phone calls for mine, but Scholastic gave me a great invitation to make it easier. You can copy this invitation to email or print out and send to your guests, or make your own.
Next, since you’re partying at night, you’re going to need something to help you see!
My kit was chock full of fantastic EVEREADY® LED flashlights and batteries. They may look small, but they’re quite powerful! By the way, they do come with batteries installed already. Want to know how I found that out? Not by reading the package, where it’s displayed quite prominently. Nope. I am a genius and instead shined it right into my eye! I don’t recommend that!
You’ll also want some awesome glow-in-the-dark bookmarks! My kit came with the above. I didn’t realize that the stars were stickers! You can also make your own with glow-in-the-dark star stickers and some card stock paper.
Of course, you’ll also need books for your party! Consider the ages of your guests and dig into your own library for appropriate titles. Don’t have enough variety? Head to your local library and check out some titles!
A few tips for your Summer Reading Under the Stars Party
- Make sure you have enough blankets or towels for guests to sit on. Even if you have a beautiful lawn with plush grass, creepy crawlers come out at night. Sitting on blankets helps keep everyone comfy.
- Speaking of bugs, keep in mind that mosquitoes are an issue at night too, so consider spraying everyone with bug spray before heading out.
- Don’t have a deck or backyard? Simply redefine what “under the stars” means! Turn your living room into the perfect party zone by turning out the lights and hanging some glow in the dark stars!
- Keep extra flashlights and batteries on hand for unexpected guests.
- If you’re going to serve snacks during the reading time (we didn’t, we had snacks before and after), make sure you opt for non-messy ones. This is especially important if you’re using library books. Be considerate of those who may not want to read through chocolate smears after you!
Our Summer Reading Under the Stars Party
I got everything ready during the day, so all we had to do was wait for dark! During the summer, that of course happens much later than usual. Around 9pm, we headed outdoors to the deck for our party. The boys were really into it. They took turns reading to each other.
Jacob has always loved reading at night. He reads in his bed by flashlight quite often, so it was fun for him to be able to do it on the deck this time! Of course, when you have more than one child, you’ll have some giggles! Not sure what Logan said to Jake here to make him laugh!
The girls had fun reading too, although things quickly get silly when you have teenage girls around!
When the dogs decided to join the party, the event rapidly declined into a whole fest of insane silliness. Remember how I said those book marks had stickers on them? Well, as you can see, they became face decorations for just about everyone!
Doesn’t Tasha look beautiful with her star sticker? Even she enjoyed Summer Reading Under the Stars! 
Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge
Our Summer Reading Under the Stars party was part of the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. This year’s theme is, obviously, Reading Under the Stars. Now in its 8th year, the Summer Reading Challenge program is dedicated to stopping the “Summer Slide” and getting kids to read throughout the summer months when school is out. There is still plenty of time left for your child to sign up and help set a world record for the number of minutes spent reading this summer!
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.
What are you doing to encourage summer reading in your kids this summer?
Looks like a lot of fun.My kiddies would enjoy something like this.Sorry i had to laugh when you said about shining it in your eyes,thats the sort of thing i would do lol.
We’re on vacation and instead of bringing a ton of toys, I brought a bin of books. My son is in heaven!
My girls have joined the Library Summer Reading club and they love it! For every 3 hours they read they get a prize..
We are heading out on a road trip this weekend, so I will be packing lots of books for my boys to read on the way!
We love reading Scholastic books. This one looks like one that would interest my kids.
Every time my grandson comes to visit, I send him home with a couple of books. I wish I would have had The Rules Of Summer to give him yesterday.
What a fun summer activity! Thanks for the idea.
This looks like such a great idea. Anything to keep the kids reading is well worth it.
This is such a great way to keep kids reading during the Summer. It helps them maintain their reading stamina for when school begins again.
Kudos to you! Keep those kids reading!
How fun. I remember as a kid getting in trouble for reading under my covers instead of going to bed.
I actually encourage my son to do that! He calls it sneaky reading. I told him every child should stay up past bedtime sneaking a book at some point in their life, lol.
i love this idea! when we were kids we had bookit if anyone is as old as me!
this is a great idea! Anything to encourage reading
every day at 11 am they have a reading program that goes on at the local libruary near my place and my daughter loves it. I’ve taken part in bookit with my 7 year old and she had a good time reading.
Oh my gosh, is that ever a great idea! I can see that the kids would be talking about it for a long time to come, and I’m all about reading, reading, reading!
So am I! I love anything that gets kids reading more. It was a lot of fun!
What a fun little thing to do. I think it be fun to do that at our house too.
This looks like so much fun! I would love to do this with my son!
I love Scholastic books and whenever the kids bring home the fund raising list from the school we always get a few. Love the under the stars party.
I wish my son’s school didn’t slack so much on the fund raising list. I miss the flyers! We do shop the book fair though when he has them.
I love this so much! I am so doing this. I love reading and I love outdoor adventure, too!