Lazy Summer Reading Ideas

Sometimes we all need a little help to get moving with summer learning. Here are some great (mostly free) ideas I've come across recently. 

Motivation! 
One of the favorite things I've found so far comes from Plenty of Picnics. They're called Summer Brain Time punch cards. I love them because I can say to my son, "Let's do some brain time!" and our reward for that is a punch on our Summer Brain Time card. I say "our" because I need a little motivation to focus on learning, too! Then when we fill out a card, we get to have a treat together like popcorn and a movie or ice cream. Here's the link to print out your very own Summer Brain Time cards! 

Summer Online Resources:
Summer Reading Resources for Kids 2012 from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas is an amazing compilation of summer reading programs!!

A Mom with a Lesson Plan: idea for collecting book reports and rewarding with money towards Scholastic book orders in the fall!

Help for Struggling Readers :great compilation of ideas

The Measured Mom: Can You Read 100 Books This Summer? 

Education.com: Do-It-Yourself Summer Reading and printouts

3 Dinosaurs Summer Printable Round Up: Lots of great ideas!

Growing Book by Book Table talk cards - topics to talk about at the dinner table or on a road trip!

Small Types: Alphabet Summer and Reading and Writing on the Road

Games for Summer:

* Lots more on my Pinterest boards!

Good for all levels:

PirateAttack (readingresource.net): Students discover pirates and treasure by identifying sounds/letters, reading sight words, or defining vocabulary words 

PlayingWith Plates:  Write sight words, word families, vocab words, or letters on small paper plates. Put them on the ceiling or floor and search for them in the dark with a flashlight. Fling them like Frisbees. Throw balls or balloons in them and read the words they land on. Sort the word family plates into words that rhyme (-at family = cat, bat, sat, mat, that).

                                                

MuffinTin Games: From one of my new favorite sites, Growing Book by Book. They are similar to the plate games but using a muffin tin and post-its or paper muffin cups. Use pennies or hard candy to toss into the cups or play a tic-tac-toe type game. 

Treasure Hunt: Hide short phrases around the house so kids can read and follow the clues. You can purchase the game Ukloo to do the same thing.

Pre-Readers:

Memory or matching games with Letters/Pictures/Rhymes

Readinga-z.com and reading-tutors.com have lots of resources for letters, rhyming, and sight words - print out the free samples!

Beginning Readers:

Word Family Mats from The Measured Mom

Flip-It Down Basic 

Zingo Sight Words bingo game:

Advanced:

Flip-It Down Advanced 

Hockey 

Great Sites for Free Printable Games and Word Lists:

·        Mrs. Perkin’s Dolch Words:  Lists of all levels of sight words plus much more!

·     Flocabulary.com:  Vocabulary word lists, SAT vocab lists, rapping program

·        Teachers Pay Teachers: just search for free items and the grade level you want – don’t be afraid to sign up, it’s easy and free

·        Primary Inspiration

·        Reading Resources

·        The Measured Mom: - sight word easy readers, word family mats, all sorts of good stuff

·        1 Plus 1Plus 1 Equals 1:  Lots of printables, especially for packets with popular themes from toddler to kindergarten level

·        Reading Tutors and Reading A-Z: Many free samples for learning letters and sight words

·        Reading Rockets printable family packets and parent articles

Books to Inspire You:

Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye

Book Love by Melissa Taylor

I Can Teach My Child to Read by Jenae Jacobson

The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

Reading Magic by Mem Fox

Sharing Hilarious Parent Mistakes = Writing Motivation

Sometimes inspiration hits in the oddest of places. As there are many education blogs out there, I always get excited when I think of something quirky that you might not be able to find on ten other sites. Tonight while getting my son's bath ready, I was doing about ten things at once. I decided to fill the sink to soak a few things while filling up the bathtub while helping him clean up his unending Legos. The next thing we know, we're back in the bathroom and there is a flood going on. I had totally forgotten about filling the sink and/or had extremely underestimated how fast it would fill. Probably both. So water was flowing over the counter and spreading out along the floor. Joy of joys. What does this have to do with literacy, you ask?

My son's first question was, "Can I be the one to tell Dad?!?!" He assured me that he was not gleefully trying to get me in trouble but merely trying to transmit some information. Yeah, right. And so this became a great opportunity for using new vocabulary - flood, spilling, soaked, etc.- while practicing his skills of retelling a story in the correct order. Even if he just got to tell the story orally to his father, there would be some literacy merit. However, I would suggest taking it a step further and writing out a glorious and humorous tale of how mom almost flooded the bathroom. If your kiddo is too little to write out a whole story, have them dictate it to you or label and illustrate boxes with order words such as first, second, third, and finally. They just get so excited when we're the ones who mess up, don't they? I can see him being very engaged in this particular writing activity. Not to mention, what a great way to preserve these awesome family memories. He did say it was his favorite part of the day.