This post is brought to you by Scholastic and ENERGIZER® Batteries. All opinions are my own.
Summer reading is a pretty huge deal here on Pretty Opinionated because reading has always been a pretty huge part of my life. Ever since Jake was born (before, even!), I’ve done everything possible to encourage him to love books as much as I do. Last month, we kicked off our Scholastic Summer Reading challenge by signing up and gearing up with great books. Check out that post here for some fun tips & my favorite resources for kids who love humor!
This month, I want to take a few minutes to share with you my favorite free parent resources over at the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge website. Then I’ll update you on our progress and tell you a bit more about some of our favorite features for kids!
5 Amazing Summer Reading Resources for Parents from Scholastic
When you head to the Scholastic Summer Reading page, you’ll notice that you can either access the parent, kids, or educators section. The parenting section is easy to access- no registration or login required. Let’s explore the summer reading resources that you’ll find there!
Daily Reading Tips: The “tip a day” carousel takes you to fantastic articles that help you improve your child’s reading skills, choose great books for all ages and even use screen time to encourage reading. Miss a tip? No problem! You can scroll back through all the previous tips. Come back daily to see new articles.
Book Lists: The Book Lists are my favorite parenting resource in Scholastic’s parent section. With lists broken down by age and ranging from birth to young adult, they cover everyone in your family. Literally. Get it? Because they’re literature. Don’t pretend you didn’t laugh. The lists feature icons to let you know if the books are part of a series, graphic novels, nonfiction and more.
Printables Galore: If there is one thing the internet has taught me, it’s that parents LOVE free printables. Guess what? Scholastic has them in spades! Start with the Summer Reading Pledge to get your kids motivated to read. Track their minutes offline with the Reading Log. Reward their efforts with a Certificate of Achievement. Inspire them to get creative with the Innovation Machine or Story Starter printables. Do one or do them all! They also have Spanish versions.
Summer Reading Videos: The Summer Reading Videos section has plenty of visual content to help give you ideas to get your kids reading, like Maggie McGuire’s tips for getting crafty with books:
Make Connections: Keep scrolling down past the videos to the “Get Connected” section and you’ll find loads of content from Scholastic Parents & Child website & Scholastic’s social media accounts. Basically, it’s like an endless source of great content.
All of these resources work together to help you plan a summer of reading fun, but parenting resources alone can’t keep kids engaged. They have to feel like they’re getting something out of it. While reading is its own reward, the Scholastic Summer Reading program gives them loads of other little boosts along the way to keep them motivated. Let’s talk a little more about that!
Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge: June Update
Today is my son’s last day of school. He gets out at noon. I am doing the happy dance. We had a rough year with a lot of bullying issues, so I’m super excited to have him home safe and sound all summer long. Plus, neither one of us are morning people, so the sleeping in part is definitely a HUGE bonus!
Preventing summer slide is important to me because Jake worked super hard all year long to earn good grades. It would be a shame to see him forget everything by fall. Still, I don’t really believe in worksheets, workbooks or anything with the word “work” in it during the summer. I want him to have fun! Relax! Be a kid!
Reading books at and slightly above his grade level helps him maintain the skills he learned plus add a few new ones to the mix, all without ever feeling like he’s doing work. It’s all about choice! Did you know that, according to the Kids & Family Reading Report, 5th edition, a whopping 91% of kids say that their favorite books are the ones they pick out themselves? Makes sense to me. All of my favorites are books that I picked on my own.
Since he’s been in school for the first month of the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge, he didn’t clock as many minutes as he will over the next two months. Still, I am pretty impressed with his progress. He’s actually already past his goal this week. So far, he’s unlocked a few bonus chapters, including a Goosebumps chapter. He’s expressed interest in checking out this series, so this is a perfect opportunity for him to decide if he’s into it.
Jake is like me, when he finds a series he likes, he must have every book in it. R.L. Stine has been around since I was a kid, so I should probably buy a new bookshelf now! The Goosebumps series is the perfect spooky series for reading under the covers after the lights go out. Fortunately, Energizer is sponsoring this year’s Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge, so he can Power Up and Read all summer long!
Kids can also unlock 12 original short stories from their favorite authors? Each story begins with “I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that no one had followed me into the shadowy library, then took a deep breath and opened the glowing book…” I wish I had a glowing book! Seriously, how cool would that be? Your kids will also earn other neat digital rewards, like fun badges and sweepstakes entries.
Speaking of “Power Up and Read,” did you know that you can enter weekly sweepstakes for an awesome “Power Up & Read Kit” of your own? The prize pack includes: Scholastic tote bag, water bottle, a copy of Reading Unbound by Jeffrey Wilhelm and Michael Smith, $10 gift certificate to Scholastic Store Online, Energizer® brand batteries, Scholastic books, and more! Pretty nifty!
Remember, now through September 4, 2015, your kids can log their reading minutes through for the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. Do you think our kiddos can beat last year’s world record of 304,749,861 minutes? At over 101 million minutes so far, I’d say they’re off to a good collective start!
How are you doing with the Summer Reading Challenge in your house? What is your favorite parent resource? Chat with me about it in the comments!