Holy cow, I couldn’t WAIT for summer time when I was a little girl!
Call me a nerd, but I would literally walk to our little town’s bookstore on a hot summer day, head inside, and camp out in front of my favorite book series. I’d read and read and read until I knew someone would be wondering why I wasn’t at the dinner table.
Now, while books are amazing and wonderful, most kids often find the lure of the sprinkler or the lure of the swimming pool supersedes the lure of reading.
Here are a few great ways to encourage your Happy Buddies to keep their sunscreen-covered noses in a book this summer!
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How Does She? offers an amazing FREE Printable Summer Reading Star Game that will have your Happy Buddies BEGGING to read!
Seriously, I can’t even explain how much fun this printable is (coupon incentives, golden tickets, BINGO style excitement) – you must go check it out!
I kind of want to do it myself this summer. 
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Brown Paper Packages also offers a neat Summer Reading Program.
Print the adorable FREE Printable circles (see pic above) that your Happy Buddies will drop into a bucket after completing the task. At the end of the week you can count up how many circles your Happy Buddy received and reward him/her with something awesome (like a sleepover in the living room with unlimited access to S’mores ingredients).
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Simple As That has a super cute FREE Printable Summer Reading Log to document your Happy Buddy’s hard work!
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Keep things simple with this creative Pick a Spot Jar from Shady Tree Diary.
Brainstorm a bunch of fun places your child can read a book (like in the bathtub).
Jot them down on craft sticks and add them to a container.
When it’s time to read – pick from the jar and follow orders!
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I am loving these FREE Printable bookmarks from lisa storms.
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Speaking of fun places to read a book…
Tatertots and Jello teaches you how to make this awesome Summer Reading Tent.
You might just end up with every kid in the neighborhood wanting to read at your Happy Home if you stick one of these in the backyard!
Looking for more Summer Reading Ideas?
Alphamom has 5 great suggestions (looooove the one about the library card) to spice up summer reading.
And Saving Dollars and Sense has a terrific round-up of several FREE Kids Summer Reading Programs that are available in your community (hello FREE tokens to Chuck E. Cheese).
I hope you will use one of these great Summer Reading Ideas so that all that precious intelligence your Happy Buddy gained from a whole year of school doesn’t drip out of his noggin’ like a melting ice cream cone.
Happy Summer Reading-ing!
*Stay tuned for a post featuring the Happy Buddy’s (and my own) Summer Reading Suggestions*
These ideas are wonderful — thank you so much for sharing!!! I can’t wait to hear your and the Happy Buddy’s reading suggestions!
I enjoyed your post making summer reading fun. There are some great ideas. I am going to post this on my blog. http://nicksposts.wordpress.com Thanks Nick
Great ideas! I’m always trying to come up with new things to do to keep the kids I babysit occupied and getting them to enjoy reading would be great! That way I can grab a book from my summer list and read with them
These are great ideas! My 9-year old gives me such trouble with reading. He finds it boring. These ideas will help to keep him engaged. I particularly love the Pick a Spot idea. I’m going to use it!