The lovely people at Scholastic have blown my mind, again!
Alex has sent me the below summer reading ideas for our children. I don’t know about you but I love that my 3rd grade daughter reads, for fun, without being told. You know what else she loves? Her Kindle Fire and our old iPhones. She’s always playing a game on one of those devices. I love these ideas of rewarding kids for reading. To them they think they’re playing a game and that’s perfectly fine with me!
Use these great ideas from Scholastic to keep your readers reading over the summer!
A recent Kids & Family Reading Report shows that half of all parents are concerned that their children spend too much time playing video or computer games and visiting social networking sites, and not enough time reading books. Now that it is summer and school is out, what can parents do to get their kids reading more books? The solution: COMBINE TECHNOLOGY AND READING TOGETHER! Something Scholastic has created with the Scholastic Summer Challenge program.
5 (FREE) ways to USE technology to GET kids reading books:
1. Track Online Minutes: Kids can read over the summer and track their reading minutes online with the Scholastic Summer Challenge, a free global reading program where kids read, log minutes, and earn prizes. Kids can have fun winning prizes, trying to break the world record for summer reading, and helping their school log the most minutes to win a visit from Captain Underpants author Dav Pilkey.
2. Time your Reading App: Families on-the-go can log their minutes with the free Scholastic Reading Timer mobile app, available for iOS and android devices. Use your summer challenge username and password to log minutes and spin the prize wheel to earn rewards! Plus, parents can see how many minutes their child logged and access articles and tips to encourage kids to read.
3. Get a FREE ebook: Great news for parents: Among children who have read an ebook, one in five says he/she is reading more books for fun, especially boys! When kids register for the Scholastic Summer Challenge, parents can choose the “just right” ebook for their kids…FOR FREE from Storia®, Scholastic’s free teacher recommended ereading app.
4. Learn: Parents can access free resources on the Summer Challenge website, including book lists and articles. On the Scholastic Parents Facebook page, parents can find the new content calendar that provides free daily expert tips and articles, activities, discounts on books, special Friday giveaways, and details about upcoming Facebook chats. When the Summer Challenge launched on May 6th, Scholastic hosted a chat with parent bloggers Amy Mascott and Allison McDonald.
5. Share on social media: Parents can use social media with their kids for reading ideas. Parents can check out Scholastic’s Summer Challenge Pinterest Board with their kids. Since research shows that parents think their child should read 11 books over the summer, each week we’ll be pinning a collage of 11 books.