Fight Summer Setback with Free Books

Summer is a mixed bag. There’s a little yin, a little yang and a whole lot of gray in between. There’s barbecue, baseball and beaches on the one hand and mosquito bites, sun burn and educational backsliding on the other.

Citronella candles, Skin So Soft Bug Guard Plus – SPF 30, and hats with brims will minimize two of the season’s pitfalls. A couple reading incentive programs by three national retailers will help minimize the third issue. 

• In a week, the Barnes & Noble Passport to Summer Reading program kicks off. Participating children, grades 1-6, use the bookstore’s summer reading passport to list each book he or she has read, including the title, author and locations mentioned in the story. Once the child has read eight books and recorded his efforts, he turns in the form for approval at the nearest Barnes & Noble store. Then the child is rewarded with a FREE book from a list of preselected titles. He also gets a chance to win a set of signed “The 39 Clues” books. The literacy initiative runs May 25 through Sept. 7.

 

•  If a child – 12 or younger – reads 10 books and fills out Borders’ Double Dog Dare Summer Reading Program form and turns it in, he gets a FREE book from the store’s summer reading titles. The program is under way and will continue until Aug. 26 or until books are gone. Forms may be turned at Borders, Waldenbooks or Borders Express.

 

• Kids up to the age of 14 can take part in Half Price Books’ Feed Your Brain Reading Program from June 1 until July 31. Participants are required to read for 15 minutes or more for five days each week to earn a FREE $3 gift card redeemable at Half Price Books Store. Kids simply need to print and fill out the Feed Your Brain log. They may use any reading material and can earn up to $15 in vouchers.

Local school, library or community group initiatives are a great resource to prevent reading skill loss over the summer too; however, parent facilitation is key. A child can’t drive to the local bookstore and may need help printing out the online forms and completing them.

A handmade chart will help keep track of daily reading goals, and parents can bump up the motivation factor for reluctant readers by adding bonuses when a goal is met: sticks of sugarless gum, 10 minutes of extra computer time, a visit to a new pool, stickers, a quarter in a jar toward the purchase of a new toy, or yard time with a soccer ball and dad. It doesn’t matter what method you use as long as books get read. Just a little effort yields so much!

“While the statistics on summer reading loss seem discouraging, there are answers,” say University of Florida education professors Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington in an article titled “Bridging the Summer Reading Gap” on Scholastic.com. “Studies suggest that children who read as few as six books over the summer maintain the level of reading skills they achieved during the preceding school year. Reading more books leads to even greater success,” they note. “When children are provided with 10 to 20 self-selected children’s books at the end of the regular school year, as many as 50 percent not only maintain their skills, but actually make reading gains.”

While B&N, Borders and Half-Price Books offer their reading initiative in the summer months, BigUniverse.com promotes literacy year round. This award-winning educational website offers thousands of colorful books with page-flip animation. Whether parent, teacher or homeschooler, this virtual library is the perfect antidote to “summer setback.”

No bug spray or suntan lotion required.

* If you are a frugal soul, check out “Tips for Getting More Books in 2010.”  In this blog, I list economic ways to add to your child’s home library.

One Comment

• Good Forex says:

  May 20, 2010 at 2:32 am

  Haha, Nice post…Thank you for sharing some good things!!