Inspire Kids to Read with a Summer Reading Party

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This is a sponsored post on behalf of the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge?. This year’s Summer Reading theme is Reading Under the Stars, and is powered by EVEREADY?, the maker of batteries and flashlights, to encourage families to discover new and fun ways to explore reading outside this summer. All opinions are my own and my families.

I shared some tips a few weeks ago on 5 Ways to Get Your Kids to Read this Summer and I’ve taken to my own advice and implemented those tips with my family. We even did number 5 last week before Lil Man and his friend’s family took off for a weekend of camping. We hosted a Summer Reading Party right in our backyard.

I want to urge my kids to read throughout the summer, not just the school year. I hope that I can help stop the “summer slide” and programs like the Summer Reading Challenge definitely make it easy. The kids can log their minutes and read for the world record, to help beat last year’s world record by a long shot. They can also enter sweepstakes for prizes and earn digital rewards when they complete weekly challenges.

In preparation for our party, Lil Man and I gathered a bunch of fun things for the guest – like bookmarks, reading logs, flashlights, batteries and even posters. We divided them all up and put them into goodie bags for each kid to use at the party, then take home to keep.

The kids were thrilled to see their bag of goodies….

…and immediately took out the flashlights to check them out.

We had some fun and played some games while it was still light out – awarding a book t each of the winners. Then as the sun started to go down, the kids settled in the yard on some blankets to read under the stars.

We did about 20 minutes of free reading, where the kids got to read their own books or find a buddy to read with. Of course Lil Man chose his bestie!

Some of the kids weren’t quite reading age yet, so Big Bro thought it would be fun to read to them for awhile.He chose the book “Sharks” and had the kids really intrigued, listening attentively.

All of the kids had a really great time at our party. Each of them thought it was super cool that we did it in the late evening, right before dark, so that they could use their flashlights to read. Next time, they want to pop a tent, so they can read under the stars all night. I promised them they could, very soon!