At-Home Summer Reading Programs for Kids

Our local library usually does an amazing summer reading program, complete with special events, free books and lots of fun prizes for kids who participate (we won a free birthday party one year!).

Of course things are different this year, and a lot of the events are virtual. As my kid gets older, too, the prizes are not as appealing and she’s not sure she wants to participate this year, but it’s still great to have some way to encourage more reading in the summer.

Her school has done the Scholastic Summer Reading Program for many years but they’re not really doing it as a school this year. (It looks like you can sign up individually, though, and it is free to do so.)

I like the idea of designing your own summer reading program, with goals and rewards that work for your kid. That way you can choose how much reading time needs to happen per day or week, how you want to track it, what sorts of rewards might be involved, even a theme for the types of books you want to read.

Example: read 20 minutes a day, a book that was made into a movie, with the reward of watching the movie and a special snack when it’s done. Or books where the main character or author has the same first name as your child.

Check out this post from The Ardent Biblo for more tips on how to set up your own summer reading program. If you need some ideas for new books to add to your list, this guide from Growing Book by Book looks fun. And don’t miss my printable summer reading logs from Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: The Ardent Biblio.]

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Summer Reading Printables and Tips for Parents

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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