Bringing Up Burns: Kids READ with Bringing Up Burns

Our family doesn't do much in the way of "structured academics" during the months our kids are out of the classroom. I believe that they have the rest of their lives to study and work and compete. I like for summer to be about adventures and explorations, creativity and family, relaxing and enjoying! How fast the time flies when you can spend your hot, July days doing nothing but "silly" things like biking around the neighborhood, selling lemonade on the corner, swimming, traveling, barbecues and beach bonfires. Isn't that why we all have nostalgic feelings about summer as adults? We miss those times!

But for me, reading isn't a chore. Reading is a luxury. Books are relaxing! I want to foster these sentiments in my kids, so I do encourage them to read in the summer. Luckily, they all have found their own fondness for books, so it isn't too hard to convince them to pick one up. But it's always fun to have a goal or a challenge for encouragement, right?

With that in mind, I have created a Summer Children's Reading Challenge. I tried to make it so that it would work for kids at any grade level. Pre-readers to Young Adults. ("Real" adults are welcome to play along too! I plan to read the books my children pick along side them.) You can click on the image above to download the PDF version and print it out. I designed it so that the prompts could be a coloring page and also a bookmark! Your child can color in the book once they have finished that prompt and cut along the dotted line to create a bookmark to use and check-off as they progress through the challenge.

I picked 10 prompts since my kids are out of school for 10 weeks. Please feel free to have your kids complete them in any order they want! There is no right or wrong way to get it done. If you are on Instagram, you can post pics of the books your kids are reading using the hashtag #kidsREADwithBringingUpBurns so we can all discover new titles from each other! I absolutely LOVE finding new books to read from my #26BOOKSwithBringingUpBurns challenge, and hope this will do the same for children's titles. I would also LOVE to see some pics of the coloring pages being filled in, or bookmarks being checked off, as the summer goes on too! If you are not on Instagram, you can always post your titles and coloring page progress on my Bringing Up Burns Facebook page too.

For fun, I asked my friends at Island Tales Bookshop to recommend some of their favorite children's books that go along with the challenge prompts. Here are the titles they suggested! (Click any image to purchase)

A BOOK WITH ANIMALS

A BOOK WITH PICTURES

A BOOK YOU READ ALOUD (to or with) SOMEONE

A BOOK WITH YELLOW ON THE COVER

A BOOK WITH A ONE WORD TITLE

A BOOK YOUR PARENTS READ WHEN THEY WERE YOUR AGE

A BOOK WITH A BEACH

A BOOK WITH A MYSTERY

A BOOK THAT IS A TRUE STORY

A BOOK FROM THE LIBRARY

I love our local libraries! One of my favorite things to do in the summer is take the kids for an hour or two and let them pick out books. Also, check out the OVERDRIVE App for digital access to thousands of eBooks, audiobooks and videos all from your local library. I love it! Works on iPhone, iPad, kindleFIRE and more.