Awesome Sauce: reading

As I was searching for ways to keep my almost-a-first-grader busy over the summer I saw this awesome program by Barnes and Noble going on this summer.

Your child in grades 1-6 reads 8 books at home and fills out a journal stating the title, author, and who they'd recommend the book to and brings it into a participating Barnes and Noble store for a FREE BOOK! WOOHOO! I LOVE free! It has to be from their list but there are 7 choices in the first and second grader bracket (one about dinosaurs and one about Lego Heros so I'm pretty sure we're covered).

We just printed our "Reading Journal" out and G is reading his first book tonight. He loves hearing ME read stories, but this is a great incentive for him to read himself.

The program runs from May 22nd until September 4th 2012.

Happy reading! :)

With the kids quickly approaching the end of the school year, I'm already in full panic mode about what they're going to do for 8 hours a day, everyday, for 3 entire months! One of the things I want to make sure we do a LOT is read!! This is a list of the books we're planning on reading this summer. Some are new ones we haven't read yet and some are old favorites. My kids are 5, 4 and 2 years old and there are books on here that are appropriate for all of them. I'm finding that I need to stop reading the kids only books in their "age group" because they end up missing out on some GREAT books. The 2 year old is really liking the Magic Tree House series, and my 5 year old still loves reading Owen, so I just have all these books out on our awesome book shelf and let them pick.

I rotate the books that are "on display" every month and the rest are stored in a bookcase cabinet so they can still go grab a favorite book whenever they want. I've found that rotating the books that are out on display keeps them excited about different books and encourages them to read new stories.

Most of the links below are to GoodReads, which has fantastic detailed reviews of each of the books. You can purchase most of them at Barnes and Noble, but we like borrowing them from the library the best (especially during the summer when our library has their "summer reading program"). I hope it gives you some ideas for awesome books to read with your little ones, or ideas for gifts for the little reader in your family!

Awesome Summer Reading List

1. Cloudette