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Reading every night before bedtime has been a tradition in our family since my children were born.  Every evening my children pick two books for mom and dad to read to them while we snuggle up together in bed.  However, in the summer, I like to up the ante and encourage my children participate in one or more Free Summer Reading Programs for Kids.  Some programs are local, while others are nationwide.

Did you know that on average students lose 2 months of reading skills over the summer?  So to combat this trend, there are several Free Summer Reading Programs for Kids that you can sign your children up for right now.  In addition to this list of 15 free summer reading programs, many local libraries also host summer reading programs for kids.  I encourage you to stop by and sign your children up.  In the past, my children have won prizes to such places as BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com.

Free Summer Reading Programs for Kids

Sylvan’s Learning Book Adventure

Using Sylvan’s Learning Book Adventure, readers in grades K-8 not only receive the satisfaction of reading a book from cover to cover, they also earn rewards for taking online quizzes to demonstrate their comprehension of the books they’ve read.  This motivational approach to learning is proven to help build a love of reading that lasts a lifetime!

To set up an account for your child, visit here.  Kids earn prizes online and then redeem them via snail mail for prizes from the Balloon HQ, Gripper Products, Highlights Magazine, IGOR™, Patch Products, Quiz Hub, The Reading Stage in concert with Playbooks, Inc., Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Whitney Worldwide.

Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program

Parents can visit the Barnes & Noble website and download the Summer Reading Journal for children to participate.  Throughout the summer, children read three books, fill out their reading journal and then take it to any Barnes & Noble Bookstore to receive a free book.   This year’s Barnes & Noble’s Summer Reading Program runs from August 1 – August 31, 2019.

Pizza Hut’s Book It Summer Reading Challenge

With the Pizza Hut Summer Reading Challenge, children can beat the “summer slide” by downloading and printing Pizza Hut’s summer activities that keep kids reading throughout the summer months.  Parents and teachers can choose from book lists to book reviews to story starters.  Pizza Hut also partnered with Candlewick Press to bring children a great list of summer reading activities.  Don’t forget to also sign up for Pizza Hut’s Book It Homeschooling Program too.

New York Times Summer Reading Contest

The 9th annual New York Times Summer Reading contest is just for students ages 13-19.  Students are able to tell the NYTimes why they loved or disliked a particular piece and each week they publish the best comments.  The NYTimes.com has a digital subscription system in which gives readers free access to 20 articles each month.

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This is a sponsored post.  All opinions are my own.

If you have followed my blog on Facebook for some time now, you know that I recently announced that I pulled my daughter out of public school and have started homeschooling her.  Though there are many reasons for this decision, I would like to share a few of them with you now.  First, let me start by saying that homeschooling in a personal choice.  While it works for some families, it does not always work for others.  In fact, I used to be one of them.

Homeschooling has always been in the back of my mind.  When my husband and I first looked at schools for my son, I toured many including public, private, religious, homeschool co-ops and others.  In the end, we decided to send my son to a charter school for kindergarten based upon his individual needs.  Fast forward a few years later, and we were at the same point with my daughter, and we decided to send her to public school.

However, this year I noticed a few things about the school that was causing her some anxiety.  For example, she was in a class size of 35 kids, there was a lot of tween drama and the school day was too long for her.  So, my husband and I discussed it and decided that homeschooling my daughter was a much better option for her at this point.

Since taking my daughter out of public school, she’s been able to check out all sorts of homeschooling classes, co-ops, park days and more.  For example, she’s currently taking an online veterinarian science class with Outschool.com and will be going on a field trip to a local veterinarian’s office soon.  

One day a week she attends a homeschool class with other kids where she gets to work on math and reading together and enjoy PE.  The small class size has made all the difference in her ability to learn and process information.

The remainder of the week I teach her at home, while we explore all the different homeschool options available in our area for the fall.  The actual idea of staying “home” when you homeschool is a misnomer!

The ability for me to take a leap of faith and homeschool my daughter was not an easy one.  I was very scared and nervous about the future.  All sorts of questions played out in my mind like what would my parents think, did I have the necessary skills to homeschool my daughter and would my daughter be okay in the end?

One of the things that inspired me during this decision-making process was the song “Me” by Mallary Hope.  The lyrics were quite timely.