Top 3 Ways To Encourage Your Child To Read More Often

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company, Kellogg Company, The J.M. Smucker Company, and The HERSHEY’S Company.  All opinions are mine alone. #StartSchoolLikeAChampion #CollectiveBias

Reading is a regular part of our daily routine in my household.  Early reading is instrumental in helping young children develop vocabulary knowledge, letter recognition and phonemic awareness.  Therefore, I like to take Field Trip Girl and Field Trip Boy to our local library at least once a week to check out a wide variety of books on various topics. I also encourage my children to read whenever they can including at the breakfast table, in the car and before bedtime.

Top 3 Ways to Encourage Your Child To Read More Often

Typically, to prepare my children for the school day, I will serve them a hearty breakfast along with a glass of Minute Maid Orange Juice.  During breakfast, sometimes we will read an inspirational book together, while other times my children prefer to read to themselves.  The key to encouraging children to read in the morning, is to keep a basket stocked full of books right near the kitchen table.  Then the only thing they have to do is reach over, grab a book and crack it open!  You’ll be surprised at how often children will pick a book up when you do this.

Another way to inspire children to read more often is to put a basket of books in the backseat of your car.  Both of my kids have at least 4 books in the car at all times.  Some are fiction.  Some are non-fiction.  I actually don’t worry too much about what types of books my children read.  The only requirement I have it that they are age appropriate and contain no foul language.  So if Field Trip Girl wants to read about Barbie, I say “go for it”!

In addition to having books in my car, I also like to pack my kids an afternoon snack for the long ride home from school.  If I don’t, my kids get super grumpy and all I hear is “I’m hungry!” all the way home.  So a sandwich made of peanut butter and SMUCKER’S strawberry jelly goes a long way in satisfying their hunger and gives me peace of mind.

Even still, sometimes I have to give them another snack when we get home from school!  Especially Field Trip Boy.  He’s growing at such a fast pace, I can’t keep my refrigerator full enough!  So to help curb his appetite, I like to give him a bowl of Cheez-It at the table while he is doing his homework.  Then after he is done studying, I encourage him to read a little bit while I prepare dinner.  It’s just one more way to instill the love of reading in my children!

Start School Like a Champion Program

One of my favorite places to buy books for my kids is at the Scholastic Book Fair at their school.  Not only do I get a good deal on books, but I also get to support my local PTA.   However, I recently learned there is another way I can earn free Scholastic Books and donate them to my local school through Walmart’s exclusive “Start School Like a Champion” program.

Just like U.S. athletes are training to complete in the 2016 Olympic games, Walmart wants your child to go for the “gold” by providing a free Scholastic Book for every purchase of select products at Walmart.  There are over 100 participating Coca-Cola, HERSHEY’S, Kellogg’s and The J.M. Smucker company products to choose from.  For a full list of participating products, please visit StartSchoolLikeAChampion.com.

The “Start School Like a Champion” program runs from June 29 – September 30.  Anyone can claim up to 90 books including grandparents, aunts and uncles.  So the more people you can get involved, the more free books you can donate!

So far, with the Minute Maid Orange Juice (located in the juice aisle), SMUCKERS Strawberry Jam (located in the breakfast aisle), Cheeze-It Original (located in the snack aisle) and HERSHEY’S Miniatures (located in the candy aisle), I have earned 4 Scholastic Books for my daughter’s classroom.

I easily found all of these items at my local Walmart store.

How To Redeem Scholastic Book Points

Now to redeem my scholastic codes and donate the books to my daughter’s school, all I have to do is log onto StartSchoolLikeAChampion.com and enter in the appropriate information.  Then Scholastic Book will ship the books directly to Field Trip Girl’s teacher for the new school year.  It’s as easy as that!

So which of these products do you plan to purchase for back to school?  Always remember “one purchase equals one free book” that you can donate through the Scholastic Book gift of reading program.

I hope you and your family have wonderful school year!

Jilleen