summer reading

Library Card: Your Passport to Summer Reading Adventure

June 5, 2018 by Guest Writer

If you’re like me, you’re getting ready to pack away the school books and enjoy a well-earned summer break. Family vacations, camp, swimming lessons, play dates, later bedtimes, vacation Bible school, and the Fourth of July are just a few of the activities we all have to look forward to.

Time for Summer Reading

One of our family’s favorite summer pastimes is participating in our local library’s reading program. What could be better than stretching out in the sun (or in a nice air-conditioned house) with a good book? Or a pile of good books for that matter? A summer reading program is an excellent opportunity for kids to develop reading habits and continue to learn new things. It also encourages them to set realistic goals by keeping track of how much they read. They can do this by logging their hours or books online or by filling a chart with stickers that the library provides.

I always enjoy watching my daughters’ excitement build as they add stickers and get closer to reaching their goals. And as kids complete so many hours or books, they earn a small prize; for example, a pencil for every five books or five hours spent reading, a medal for the next five, a coupon for a free food item for the next five, and so forth. If a child finishes the reading program in due time, they’ll receive a bigger prize. But for me, the best reward is seeing my girls grow in their love for reading and develop greater reading comprehension. The more they read, the more they learn; and the more they want to learn, the more they want to read. It’s a beautiful cycle!

Time for Fun

Besides the reading program, libraries also offer many fun educational events throughout the summer. Our family has experienced a petting zoo, seen a professional juggler, participated in a puppet show, and even met a real beaver belonging to one of our own “next-town” neighbors—all at our local library! Many of these shows have piqued our daughters’ interest in certain subjects and encouraged them to check out books related to them. This further stimulates their love of learning and reading.

Time for Outreach

Most importantly, these library events provide good opportunities to meet other families in the community for potential gospel outreach. Your family can be salt and light before your local librarians too. Conversations about reading, school, and your children may lead to spiritual topics. We should always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks the reason for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15).

So as you start filling out your summer calendar, remember to include a library reading program. Books are waiting to be read, imaginations are ready to be kindled, and souls may be prepared to hear the good news of salvation.

• • • • •

Jennifer is a pastor’s wife and mom of two young girls and loves being able to homeschool them. During her own twelve years of homeschooling, Jennifer developed a passion for reading and writing. She earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and relishes writing during her free time.

10 Exciting Summer Activities for Homeschool Families

June 29, 2017 by Meredith

All right, admit it. Not all summer vacations are created equal.

Perhaps you remember figuring this out as a child when the neighbor kid returned from a mega theme park. After telling lots of cool stories, he asked where you were going on vacation that year. And somehow the idea of a weekend camping trip lost a little of its luster when compared to the excitement of the fast rides and thrills of a theme park.

The hard part for a child to learn is that it doesn’t matter so much where you have an adventure as much as who you have the adventure with! Some of the best childhood memories can spring from times when family members have little but each other. All it takes is a bit of imagination, resourcefulness, and creativity.

If your family—like most—just can’t seem to coordinate time and finances long enough to pull off a flashy vacation, don’t give up! For the family determined to have a good time together and make fun memories, there’s no need to even leave town.

Try these fun ideas for an unforgettable summer:

Go on a photo scavenger hunt with the whole family. Make a list of cool and wacky items to find around town—a statue of a lion, an ice cream shop, a blue kite, and such—and take fun family pictures with each item. To provide more of a challenge, set yourselves a time limit or divide the family into two teams. Maybe your town has something like Greenville’s Mice on Main^©.
Instead of going to the city pool or recreation center, find out whether there are any natural or manmade lakes or reservoirs in your area and if they’re open to the public. See whether you can find any information on how they were made, and then turn that into a summer field trip—with a picnic and an afternoon of swimming to finish up. If there are several, try to visit each lake or reservoir over summer break, and have the family rate them as to which ones were the best.
If you have very little ones, a summer camping trip may seem like too much of a hassle. But camping out in the backyard is certainly doable! Set up a tent (borrow one from a friend if you need to) and roll out sleeping bags for the whole family. Then, stoke the fire for dinner and some storytelling! (Depending on local ordinances, you may need to use a deck fire pit instead of building a fire directly on the ground.) A dinner of roasted hotdogs and toasted marshmallows will fill tummies nicely, and campfire songs and exciting stories told around the fire will make for a wonderful and memorable evening.
Have each of your children set a goal for the summer break. It can be any kind of a goal—frivolous (“I’m going to make my brother laugh every day”), practical (“Learn to ride a bicycle”), or slightly outlandish (“I’m going to touch my nose with my tongue”)—just so long as it’s the goal that child wants to pursue. Then have them chart their progress—they might have to get creative in how they measure it—as the weeks go by so that they can see how far they’ve come over the summer.
Join a summer reading program, but don’t just do it just for the children. Get everyone involved and track how many pages the entire family reads over the course of the summer. The program prizes will provide children with motivation to read, but you can spice it up even more by throwing in your own incentives for siblings who help each other reach their goals by reading out loud. Find some great books to read in these posts.
Invite friends over for a halfway Christmas party—play Christmas music, drink frozen hot chocolate (you can find great recipes online), do a white elephant gift exchange, go caroling in your neighborhood, and have a contest to see who can perform the best wacky summer skit version of Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol.
Plan a family theme day. As a family, decide on a theme—pirates or a favorite children’s story, like Secret Garden or Alice in Wonderland—and a specific day to celebrate it. Then brainstorm about decorations, food (there are lots of themed party recipes online), activities, costumes, and props—even what accents you’ll use. Make sure everyone is involved in the preparation and can contribute to the adventure.
Hold game tournaments. Incorporate board games, electronic games, and physical games to challenge the skills of family members in different arenas. You may even want to purchase a brand new board game that appeals to the whole family. Learn how to play it and then include it in your tournament matches.
Choose a skill that interests the whole family—maybe rock-climbing—and take lessons together throughout the summer. Not only will you be equipping your children with another skill but you will also be doing it in a way that provides quality family time.
Pile into the family car and try to get lost in your city! If you’ve lived there a long time, it might be a little difficult, but there are countless roads that will surprise you with the interesting things they hide. Stop at places that look interesting. Also, this is a great opportunity to help your children learn how to follow a map. Let one child be the navigator and trace your route on the map. Then have him practice giving directions accordingly. Alternatively, each child can chart a route on an individual map before leaving home and then take turns following the route as navigator.

The potential for summer fun is practically limitless. Learning can happen in the most surprising places and at unexpected times. And wonderful memories can be created without ever leaving town. All you need is a good imagination, a spirit of adventure, and some dedicated family time. So set the cell phones aside, turn off the TV, log off the computer/tablet, and go have some summer fun your family will never forget!

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Reading for Boys

June 14, 2016 by Ben

When I was six, I hated reading. All I wanted to do was build forts with sticks and gather lots of pinecone hand grenades. It didn’t help that most of the books around the house related to my older sister’s passion for a certain brand of dolls. But, eventually, due to my mother’s persistence, I developed an enthusiasm for reading.

Years later, I still enjoy reading, but as a father of three daughters, I don’t often think about reading options for boys. But my friend and BJU Press illustrator Zack does. In fact, he says that reading education is geared towards girls and that often boys are alienated. His helpful blog post is worth reading in full, but one paragraph is particularly important:

Publishers themselves provide a few obstacles to male literacy. Simply put, publishers target girls more than boys because girls share and recommend books. Boys typically read in isolation from one another. Boy-friendly publishing brings greater financial risks than girl-friendly publishing. . . . This is easily rectified. If books that honor boyhood sell a bunch of copies, publishers will produce more. This means that parents have to be discerning consumers and reward publishers who take boy-friendly risks.”

Thankfully, when I was a boy, my parent’s provided me with books that honor boyhood. My mother was always looking for fiction books that I would appreciate and that would not threaten my walk with the Lord. Here are four titles that I enjoyed when I was younger and that parents can provide for their boys today.

A Father’s Promise

A book I read several times, A Father’s Promise tells the story of a Christian Jew named Rudi, who must survive the Nazi occupation of Poland. Rudi’s close escapes into the woods were my favorite part.

Mice of the Herring Bone

This is a fantastic adventure story about two mice that sail the high seas and frequently encounter pirates. I loved Mice of the Herring Bone and the other four books in the series! When my cousin was struggling with reading, we shared these books with him, and he loved them too.

Pulling Together

As a family struggles to keep their farm, a young boy named Matthew watches his father’s resourcefulness and strength. In the final pages of Pulling Together, the family’s hope rides on their work horses in an exciting local fair competition.

Zoli’s Legacy

Based on a true story, Zoli’s Legacy centers on a young man in post–World War I Hungary who is seeking a path to success in a nation devastated by war. Even though my dad read this book to me at a time when I still hated reading, I enjoyed the account of Zoli’s journey to manhood.

These are a few of my favorite stories for boys. What are some of your favorites?

June Is Reading Month!

June 2, 2016 by Justin

Enjoying a good book while sitting in a deck chair on my patio is one of my favorite summertime activities. The relaxing sounds and smells of nature combined with the warm sun make it easy to be carried away by the pages.

June is reading month here at BJU Press and to celebrate I’d like to highlight some of my favorite blog posts about reading.

Tips for Teaching Reading

Fun Reading Activities

Exciting Book Reviews

Need some extra reading material? JourneyForth is offering 25% off the entire lineup throughout June 2016. From children’s novels to adult Bible studies, there’s something for the entire family. Happy reading!

Summer Fun Meets Summer Reading

June 23, 2015 by Guest Writer

What’s the best way to keep your children learning during the summer? You guessed it─a nonstop parade of good books. With the strong pull of technology and outdoor fun, it may seem impossible for us to get our kids to sit still long enough to focus on a book. Regular library visits, a reward system, and some fun role-play after the summer reading session are just a few ways I recommend engaging your active brood in that most vital skill─reading.

Library Day

Scheduling a library day, either weekly or biweekly, sets aside a defined time for books and reading. If my kids have finished with their books, we return them on library day and get new ones. If a child is still enjoying a book, we renew it or bring it along to read while at the library. Make sure that the children know your family’s reading philosophy and guidelines; then set them free to wander among the shelves. They may come back with a random assortment of treasures─a pop-up book, a book about robots, a volume of fairy tales, and a historical novel─but if they’re excited about what they found, it’s a win-win.

Picture This!

Tiny preschoolers and early readers enjoy having plenty of pictures to go along with the story, like the beautiful illustrations in A King for Brass Cobweb. The images help their minds engage in the action, stimulating their imaginations. Eventually, the child’s imagination is mature enough to go off on its own, automatically creating the scenes and characters found in books without pictures. One way to help your little one’s imagination grow is to help him or her draw a new illustration for part of the story.

Chapter by Chapter

Once children pass the picture book phase, chapter books like Mice of the Herring Bone transition them to stories that last beyond a single reading session. They have a sense of accomplishment as each chapter ends, blended with anticipation for the next phase of the story. Read to them, and encourage them to read to you as well. Some parents of reluctant readers like to reward completion of chapters or whole books with a sticker, a treat, a trip to the playground, or a little time with the tablet or TV.

Girl Time

For moms of girls, starting a mother-daughter book club or girls’ reading time yields a closer bond and plenty of precious memories. My sister and I vividly recall curling up in our bunk bed each night, listening to my mother read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. When I was older, I read the The Journeyman by Elizabeth Yates aloud to my mom while she cooked dinner every evening. To pique your daughter’s interest, find books that address current issues, such as Capturing Jasmina, with its thoughtful yet dramatic depiction of child labor and trafficking. Or look to the past and imagine what life must have been like in Old Testament times with the book Where I Belong.

For the Guys

Boys typically love action-packed stories. They also appreciate strategy, cleverness, and a fight for survival. Wartime struggles or wild westerns are perfect for teenage boys. If elementary-aged boys have trouble settling down to read, promise to act out the story with them after they read a chapter or two. For example, after reading part of Brave the Wild Trail, you might set up a cowboy camp in the backyard.

With boys and girls alike, associating imaginative play and outdoor fun with a great book brings them that much closer to a lifelong love of reading.