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.]

Leif Erikson Day is celebrated on Oct. 9, and it’s a great time to learn more about the Vikings and why we still remember Erikson all these years later.

If you don’t know about Leif Erikson (sometimes spelled Eriksson), he’s believed to have been born in Iceland, and is considered the first European to set foot on continental America, more than 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

123 Homeschool 4 Me has a printable mini book about Leif Erikson and the Vikings for kids to read and color. It talks about who the Vikings were, what kind of ships they used, how they got to America and more. It’s a good overview for younger kids to use.

A good unit study is available from Simple Living Creative Learning, which includes a page where kids can write what they know, what they want to learn and what they learned through the unit, as well as information on the Vikings, longships, helmets, clothing and more.

Get a printable Viking unit study with reading passages, comprehension questions and other activities aimed at grades 4-8 from Creative Classroom Core at Teachers Pay Teachers. (And see more Vikings content from TPT here.)

Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus has some great unit study ideas, too, including suggested books and videos. The post includes information about the Viking voyages, society, mythology and ships, as well as some vocabulary and a list of famous Vikings. While you’re over there also check out her free printable lapbook, which includes mini books on ships, a timeline, a Viking women coloring page, draw your own Vikings, geography, ancient runes and more.

Piqolo Kids has a lesson on Viking women with (available for purchase) worksheets about a day in the life of Viking women. Even if you don’t grab the printables there’s some good resources on that page and a link to a video on Viking women.

Learn how to draw a Viking ship with instructions from Drawing How to Draw, or grab Vikings coloring and labeling worksheets from Kids Puzzles and Games.

There’s a Leif Erikson Festival annually in Norway, Michigan, which you can learn more about here.

Have you read?

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