School’s out for summer! No more fighting over homework! No more badgering your kiddo to do the math problems and reading assignments! So how on earth do you keep your kids engaged and their brains nimble over the summer? Check out these FREE national summer reading programs to entice your child to keep reading over the summer. You’ll love that their still doing “school work” while they’ll think they’re having fun and earning cool stuff. Now, if I could just find summer reading programs for moms…
Be sure to pin this page or bookmark it so you can come back to it all summer! And don’t miss out my recommended summer reading lists, broken down into age groups for the kiddos:
- Summer Reading List for Grades K-2
- Summer Reading List for Grades 3-5
- Summer Reading List for Grades 6-8
- Plus – 200 FREE Summer Activities for the Kids
Your Local Library
I guarantee one of your local libraries has a great summer reading program. Last year, my son earned a free Elephant and Piggy book from Mo Willems. You would have thought he’d won the lottery he was so excited.
Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge
Through Scholastic’s site, your little reader can log minutes all summer, take weekly challenges and even earn online rewards. They’ll also be entered for a chance to win awesome books every time they reach a weekly reading milestone. Plus, they can help set a new reading world record! Learn more and get signed up by visiting the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge site.
Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program
Read any 8 books and record them in the provided online reading journal. Bring the completed Reading Journal to your local B&N store and your kid can choose a FREE BOOK from their selection on the Reading Journal list at the store. Visit Barnes & Noble’s Summer Reading site for more information and to sign up. Oh, and be sure to check out B&N’s FREE On-Line Story Time on their site.
Pottery Barn Kids Summer Reading Challenge
Kids who read 8 titles from Pottery Barn’s recommended reading list by July 31 will receive a free book at participating stores. Don’t forget about their weekly story times held at designated stores. Visit Pottery Barn’s events listings to learn more and locate participating stores.
Pizza Hut Book It! Program
Have your child read 5 books and fill out the entry form online to be eligible to to win a prize. Visit the Pizza Hut Book It! Program to learn more and sign up.
Sylvan Book Adventure
Kids in grades K-8 can search for books on Book Adventure, read them offline, come back to take a quiz on what they’ve read and earn prizes. Learn more on Book Adventure.
Half Price Book Feed Your Brain Summer Reading Program
Read for at least 15 minutes each day for a month. Once you’ve read 300 minutes, turn in your child’s completed reading log to earn your $5 HPB Bookworm Bucks reading reward for the month. Half Price Book willl award one top reader per age group each month with a TOP READER prize – a $20 HPB Gift Card! Learn all about the program and get the reading log to complete by visiting Half Price Book’s Feed Your Brain Summer Reading Program site.
Random House’s Step Into Reading Summer Reading Challenge
Read at least three of the Step Into Reading series and send away for free lunch bags. Get the form for the Step Into Reading Summer Reading Challenge here.
Chuck E. Cheese’ Reading Rewards
With this ongoing program, have your child read every day for two weeks straight and they can earn 10 free tokens for their next visit. Get the Reading Rewards Calendar on the Chuck E. Cheese site.
Regional Summer Reading Programs
There are also several regional summer reading programs that may be in your area!
DID I MISS A FREE SUMMER PROGRAM? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS! AND TELL ME HOW YOU KEEP YOUR KIDS READING THIS SUMMER.
Indah Nuria Savitri says
June 4, 2014 at 1:59 pmthank you for sharing it…just exactly what I need :)…I hope my kids will have a great summer break without forgetting their lessons ..
Jennifer says
June 4, 2014 at 2:25 pmI’m excited to get our summer reading programs started! We have one more week of school until I officially launch 🙂
Corie Clark says
June 4, 2014 at 2:41 pmGreat info! Thank you! I always fail miserably at the whole summer reading thing but I’m going to try again anyways 🙂
Jennifer says
June 4, 2014 at 7:10 pmThere is no failure, Corie! We moms need a summer break, too 🙂
Cassie @ 3Dinosaurs.com says
June 6, 2014 at 9:11 amWe are doing several of these this summer. I’m looking forward to it!
Jennifer says
June 6, 2014 at 9:52 amMy boys are quite excited about the reading programs, too! Gotta get those incentives going 🙂
Alli says
June 6, 2014 at 9:30 amOur local library hosts reading clubs for all ages throughout the summer. For every day you read you mark your special reading calendar and after 7 days you earn a entry into a draw. Their weekly prizes are usually books, and then each library (there are 25 in total in our library netwrok) has a grand prize draw for each age group at the end of the summer. Usually with lots os fun back to school goodies for the school age kids and reading accessories for the adults. I sign up our whole family, that way we can all encourage one another to read a little every day.
Jennifer says
June 6, 2014 at 9:53 amWe just adore our local library and always take advantage of their reading programs. I’ve found because we read every day, we seem to burn through it though. So I like having other programs to add to the mix 🙂
Wendy says
June 6, 2014 at 10:04 amMy kids always looked forward to the summer so that they would finally have “limitless” time to read whatever they want! Late night, under the covers with a flashlight reading is one of the joys of summer! For me, it was never about lessons and academics, but fostering a life-long joy in the wonders of books. Reading to/with kids is so important! These summer reading programs are such fun and a great motivator and bonus!
Jennifer says
June 6, 2014 at 10:48 amWendy — I always hated “having” to read — but I was a voracious reader when it was my choice. And yes, reading under the covers with a flashlight has to be one of the greatest things to do as a kid. Breaking the rules with staying up late… but our parents were thrilled we were reading at the same time.
Camille says
June 6, 2014 at 11:08 amThanks for the round up. I like having as many different options as possible so I can find the right one to motivate each of my kids (and sometimes that’s all of them). Pinned this!
Jodie @ Growing Book by Book says
June 6, 2014 at 12:43 pmGreat ideas! Thanks for sharing this list of resrources.
Kelly says
June 6, 2014 at 12:44 pmThanks for the awesome list! I’m going to share this blog post.
Crystal Green says
June 6, 2014 at 6:33 pmThis is a pretty neat list of reading programs. Many of which I haven’t heard of. Thank you so much for sharing them. Maybe it will get my kids excited that I have them involved in the library reading program. Plus my goal is to get my middle child up to the reading level I feel he should be at by the end of this summer.
Jennifer says
June 7, 2014 at 8:14 amWe did some summer reading programs last year with the boys and they were a hit. So when I presented them again this summer, it was an easy YES! Good luck in getting your middle child up to speed on reading. I know it can be tough to get them excited sometimes.
Amanda @artsy_momma says
June 6, 2014 at 6:57 pmThanks! I have been looking for a great list like this 🙂
Jennifer says
June 7, 2014 at 8:15 amAbsolutely, Amanda. I started it (selfishly) because I needed a program or two for my boys and I thought.. why shouldn’t everyone know about these! Happy reading with the kids.
Sheila @ BrainPowerBoy says
June 6, 2014 at 9:00 pmWe love the B&N Reading program and do it every year. My son already turned in his record and got a nice book.
Jennifer says
June 7, 2014 at 8:15 amWoah! You are WAY ahead of us 🙂 That’s awesome that he was so excited to participate.
Jill says
June 7, 2014 at 12:02 pmThank you for the great list of ideas on where to find these programs!
Jennifer says
June 7, 2014 at 2:27 pmAbsolutely, Jill. Happy reading with the kidddos 🙂
Meeghan says
June 8, 2014 at 9:12 pmThanks for all these great suggestions. We are going to sign up at our library tomorrow -but, it is good to know of all the other options! I am pinning so we can participate in all of them!
Jennifer says
June 9, 2014 at 8:22 amYes! Definitely participate in more than one! We go through our local library’s summer reading program and it is more fun for the kids to have additional goals.
Patti says
June 11, 2014 at 9:08 amPinned and stumbled!
Jill says
June 15, 2014 at 2:20 pmThanks for sharing this great resource!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!
Jennifer says
June 15, 2014 at 3:30 pmYou’re more than welcome. Hope some of your readers take advantage of the great free reading programs out there this summer.
Makeovers & Motherhood says
June 17, 2014 at 3:20 pmFabulous resource! Reading programs are sooooo good for kids! Thank you so very much for sharing on Makeovers & Motherhood’s Welcome Party Wednesday Link-Up! Featuring this tomorrow!
Carrie says
June 20, 2014 at 8:10 pmWhat a great resource! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!