At-Home Summer Reading Programs for Kids

July 6, 2021 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

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

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Snow Globe Crafts for Kids

Whether you have snow where you live or are on the wrong side of the world for that, these snow glob crafts for kids are a lot of fun to put together at home or in the classroom.

If you want to keep it super basic, you can download some snow globe coloring pages from Monday Mandala and have kids drawn in their own images (or color in what is there for the ones that are already filled). This could be a fun way to play with different media, having kids paint in one, draw in another, or use crayons in one, colored pencils in another, etc.

Or you can add your kid (or a classroom full of kids) to snowglobes with this craft from Twitchetts. It’s easy to make and fun for kids to help with, too.

You can also make snow globes with paper plates pretty easily, and there are lots of different options out there that should give you some ideas. This one from In the Playroom uses blue glittery pompoms as the snow and has a snowman in the background (though you can use whatever you want).

Mas and Pas uses a clear plate on top of a regular plate to make its snow globe, and Daydream into Reality just uses a paper plate to make the snow globe shape but there’s no snow involved. Their template includes different images you can put in the snow globe, or draw your own.

If you want to make a snow globe without the watery (so potentially less mess) you can make a waterless snow globe out of a plastic cup with this tutorial from The Pragmatic Parent. It uses tiny foam balls as the snow. Tidy Mom’s version uses a real glass jar and fake snow to flurry around.

And if you’re OK with using liquids in your snow globe, which will allow the snow to flutter like in a real snow globe, check out this version from 123 Homeschool 4 Me, which uses water and baby oil.

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