With School Out and Summer in full effect our kids have been going ninety to nothing enjoying their Summer Vacation. My 8 and 10 year old daughters are finding them selves outdoors with their friends, playing and having a good time. One thing further-est from their mind is school, or any kind of school work. But, lucky for us we registed the girls up for the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge.
The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge is a 8 year running program that is dedicated to stopping the “Summer Slide” and getting kids to read throughout the Summer months when school is out. Jaden and Jaci love choosing from several books that suite their reading level, and help them prepare for the next school year.
Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge
It is estimated that the “Summer Slide” accounts for as much as 85% of the reading achievement gap between lower-income students and their middle- and upper-income peers.
Learning or reading skill losses during the summer months are cumulative. By the time a struggling reader reaches middle school, summer reading loss has accumulated to a two-year lag in reading achievement.
New For 2014
We have been a part of the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge program for a few Summers, and see the benefits every year. What I like most is that Scholastic always comes up with new and interesting ways to engage and motivate their little readers. Here are a few new features for kids and parents:
Kids
- Kids will read around the galaxy this summer! As they log their minutes online, constellations will light up and unlock fun facts.
- Common Core-aligned activities. Kids can earn virtual prizes when they complete reading quizzes, complex text challenges, word challenges, etc.
- New book lists, including a “Reading Under the Stars”-themed list with books about space, stars, astronomy, camping, wilderness, and spooky stories to read by a campfire.
- Monthly sweepstakes and bonus reading challenges.
Parents
- Parents can track their students’ reading progress, access free Summer Reading Challenge Participation Guides for book lists (including Common Core-suggested titles), expert resources, activity sheets, a Star Guide, downloadable bookmarks and more.
- Online Facebook calendar app with social media chats and giveaways.
- New daily content on the Scholastic Reading Timer app
Scholastic Books Helps Parents
The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge program understand that as a parent you just need to register your young readers in the program to sucseed. The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge program arms parents with resources and tips to drive and inspire Summer reading. Here are some tools for parents:
1.) Online summer reading program for kids: Parents can register their children grades K–8 (ages 4–14) for the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge from now until September 5. Kids can log their reading minutes, win prizes and help set a new world record for summer reading. The goal is to beat last year’s summer reading world record of 176,438,473 minutes.
2.) Daily tips and prizes for parents: Scholastic Parents Facebook has a summer calendar app with expert tips, articles and activities. Every Friday, parents can enter for the chance to win Friday Freebies prizes, including great books for their kids.
3.) Chat live with moms on Google+: Join Teach Mama and No Time for Flashcards bloggers for a chat about ways to keep kids reading all summer on Thursday, June 19 at 9 PM ET.
4.) Track reading minutes with a mobile app: Parents can monitor their children’s progress and help their children enter reading minutes on-the-go with the free Scholastic Reading Timer app.
5.) 2014 summer booklists: Curated by Scholastic experts, these lists feature more than 700 books for children in Pre-K–8, including this year’s “Reading Under the Stars”–themed list, which showcases books about space, stars and astronomy, as well as spooky stories to read by a campfire.
6.) Free book offer: Parents can receive a free Scholastic book by mail when they buy two specially marked packs of EVEREADY® Gold® batteries or EVEREADY® flashlights and redeem the package codes online.
In 2013, Scholastic inspired more than 130,000 kids from 4,200 schools in all 50 states and 31 countries to set a new record for summer reading of 176 million-plus minutes!
Will you be apart of the 2014 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge?