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Summer is coming… Even if your brain has been in summer mode for two months already, it might be fun to actually declare the start of summer and then plan different ways to kick it off.
Summer reading is a fun way to encourage your kids to keep using their brains without it feeling like “work.” And to make it even more fun, there are lots of ideas online for your kids to track their reading! I’ve gathered my favorite ideas here and plan to implement some of these with my kids this summer.
The more your kids read the more prizes they can earn through various summer reading programs online and in-town.
You can also check out our list of free summer learning resources or free learning websites and apps if you want to work on math or other academic skills!
10 Ways to Encourage Summer Reading for Kids
Bookmark Tracker | Paper Trail Design
These simple bookmarks are perfect for younger readers! There isn’t space for a ton of titles, but you could have your child only include challenging books (e.g. over 100 pages) or even do a different bookmark for different themes.
Summer Reading Poster | Everyday Reading
I absolutely love this chart that came out a few years ago. It’s free! You just have to get it printed yourself. There are also options to print multiple copies or to make it smaller if you want a different one for multiple kids. It gives space to track books read or time spent as well as different challenges kids can complete over the course of the summer.
Summer Reading Game Board | The Ardent Biblio
This game board encourages kids to complete one square a day, and as they progress along the board, there is the opportunity to earn different rewards (that you could come up with together). You could print this out on a larger piece of paper or make it into bookmarks.
Reading Log Printable | Balancing Home
This is a simple but colorful reading log that you can print out for your kids. It has space for thirty entries, so your child can track a whole month of reading and how many pages they read each day.
Reading Scavenger Hunt | Modern Parents Messy Kids
Encouraging summer reading for kids with this fun scavenger hunt that challenges your kids to read different books. The format is a treasure map, and kids can complete it in any order that they want.
Printable Summer Reading Log | Simple As That Blog
This mom designed a printable log that opens up to look like old-school library catalog cards. The design is small so you can print a bunch of them and hand them out to your kids at the beginning of the summer.
Summer Reading Star Game | How Does She
This is a whole system of encouraging summer reading for kids. There is a rewards component, drawing activities, and golden tickets!
100 Books Summer Reading Challenge | Teaching Mama
These printables include a caterpillar-looking chart that lets your kids track up to 100 books, and there’s also a printable where you can write the titles. I think this would be perfect for kids who you are still reading aloud to, since 100 books in 3 months would be hard for older readers (unless they were reading really easy books).
Summer Reading Stickers | Family Style Schooling
This was designed for homeschooling families who do Classical Conversations, but I love the idea so much I had to share it, even if you aren’t homeschooling. You can print the drawings out as stickers and make them into a journal, or you could just use them as small coloring pages. The books included are all high quality and great reads (most of them are classics), so this would be a good challenge for older readers to keep their brains working over the summer.
Reading Log Coloring Page | This Reading Mama
This is a simple way to track reading by coloring in books (older kids could also write the titles in). Depending on how much your kids are reading, you could come up with rewards for each time they fill up a coloring page!
Do any of these jump out? How do you plan to encourage learning and reading over the summer?
