Summer Reading Hour at Home

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If a summer reading hour isn’t already a yearly tradition at your house, this year is a great time to start it — for both kids and adults! Find a good book for kids and enjoy it together or encourage a daily reading hour for your child to take the adventure on his own.

Whether your child is an independent reader or just learning to read, your helping them cultivate a love of books will have long-lasting positive effects on their emotional well-being, communication skills, and educational progress. Make your summer reading hour a gateway to learning!

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It’s summertime! That means school’s out and homework is just a memory, right? Whether your kids have a long summer break or just a few weeks before the new year begins, don’t let reading fall by the wayside.

Can you set aside just an hour to read each day? Plan for a family read aloud in the hammock or by the pool? Pack books instead of devices on your next road trip? Or load your kindle with books for kids to read while you’re away?

Summer reading hour is a great yearly tradition to include along with family movie nights and beach days.

Why It’s Important

You probably already know that reading is good. And chances are your kids know that, too.

Reading for kids is not only a great way to fuel the imagination, but it’s also a way to maintain academic skills over the summer break. You can enrich history and science knowledge over the summer by exposing your kids to nonfiction, of course, but also to fiction that features elements of history and science.

A book, after all, is a journey.

Now that we’ve graduated four sons from our home high school and two have already graduated from college, I have the benefit of looking back and seeing some of the things we did right during their early years.

Summer reading hour was one of those things! They’ve turned out to be well-read, intelligent people who know a lot of stuff and can have conversations with a wide range of people.

Every summer when we took a break from our homeschool, the kids were required to do math every day and an hour of reading. They could read what they wanted, but they had to read.

This hour of reading every day brought quiet to the house, calm to my heart, and books to my kids’ imaginations.

girl leaning against garden wall holding a picture book.

Here are some of the strategies that can help make it happen:

Make it a clear priority.

If you want your kids to read over the summer, then you need to be clear with them that it’s a priority and that you have expectations.

Summer reading hour doesn’t have to be complicated. It involves nothing more than unplugging from all devices and providing a big stack of library books.

Talk with your kids to make sure that they know what’s available to them so that they are set up for success.

Be reading.

It’s always good for parents to read for and alongside their kids. I’ve always been a fan of children’s literature, so I’ve enjoyed reading books aloud with my kids, oftentimes reading ahead. (Gasp.)

As my kids have grown into teens and adults, we’ve discovered that some of my books are interesting to them! And we read more grown-up books together. Now, that’s kinda trippy.

Be sure that you’re reading as well. Children do what they see modeled to them.

cover of the Mysterious Benedict Society on Kindle on black table.

Find good books for kids.

For summer reading hour to be a success, your kids are going to need access to good books.

Books for kids are abundant, but it’s hard to know what’s twaddle, what’s appropriate, and what’s a must read.

Reading guides typically give you an inside peek to what the book is about so you can gauge if it’s a good fit for your family. We’ve relied on reading guides like these:

We’ve also found many a great book for kids just by asking for recommendations from friends. I love the comments on this post about family “read agains”; they’ve been invaluable in helping me find good kid books over the years.

Your kids may come up with their own ideas. Spend a few minutes reviewing their choices to make sure you’re comfortable with what their minds are digesting.

With older kids, it’s a good idea to be willing to read with them a book that you’re unsure about. It could be a good conversation starter for both of you!

boy in tie-dye shirt lying on hammock reading a cs lewis book.

Make comfy corners.

Make sure there are comfortable spots to read in and around your house. Could you set up a bean bag in the den or playroom? A hammock in the back yard? Some lawn chairs here and there?

When there’s a nice place to sit and read, it invites reading. Make yourself a cozy corner, too, while you’re at it.

Help reluctant readers.

Reluctant readers may balk at this entire idea of summer reading hour. Be patient, but persistent. Offer incentives, whether through your local library, bookstore, or on your own.

Another option is to be available to read together. For years I had a regular read aloud going for my younger kids, but found that often my husband and teens would stop what they were doing to join us!

Summer reading hour doesn’t have to be a solo activity; it can be fun for the whole family to do together!

More Reading Tips

What works for you?

Leave a comment below and let us know what works for you.

This post was originally published on July 2, 2013. It has been updated for content and clarity.

table covered with books, beach gear, and reading logs with text overlay.

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17 Comments

  1. We’ve always been into reading, and when I first approached homeschooling 20+ yrs ago my #1 goal was (not for the kids to be able to read but……) for the kids to learn to LOVE to read. Didn’t want the mechanics of reading but the joy of it, so I read aloud a lot, taking their lead. Sometimes I thought the girls would love a book but found out later they didn’t, and I learned to not force a book or finish it because we started it.

    9 dc later and they all love to be read to, and all those that are able to read thoroughly enjoy reading for themselves. Our 25yod is visiting us (we are camping in Colorado) with her baby, and she listens while I read “Under Wildwood” to the rest of the family everyday. Its such a wonderful (free) family activity.

  2. Can’t wait till my little guy is old enough for me to read longer books to him! For now I have to settle with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie 🙂

    1. You can read any book you’re interested in out loud to your baby/ toddler. We read the first 3 Harry Potter books out loud to our daughter before her first birthday. Of course, she didn’t get anything from the stories, just the association of reading being a good family time each day. When they were preschool and early elem aged, they listened to the entire Magic Treehouse series in the car, along with several Little House books. There’s no bickering in the car when everyone wants to hear the story. They went on to read all f those same books on their own, and they remembered so many of the details when they learned those topics in school. We continued with reading novels aloud until our kids were in middle school, and schedules got busy, but maybe we should try to bring it back for summer.

  3. I started reading to my son when he was a baby. I would sit in the glider chair with him in my lap. It was a night time ritual. When he was in kindergarten, we would trade off reading pages. Finally we outgrew the glider chair (even though we were both skinny, we could no longer fit, side by side.) We decided to read on my bed for night time reading. My son is now 12 and we still read together every night at bedtime. He loves reading action books and is currently reading the Alex Rider series and I read right next to him with my iPad.

    I love our reading time together. It’s great for bonding Mother and Son (since I don’t play Call of Duty.) Sometimes I fall asleep now before he does.

  4. Can you suggest good read alouds for a four year old boy? I am going to try Charlotte’s Web, but it is the only one I could think of so far that is around the level he could understand. (I have a bad, bad case of mommy brain.) I know you have four boys, so I’m sure you have many suggestions!

    1. I have twin boys who are 8 and we started doing read alouds when they were that age. We read Charlotte’s Web when they were in kindergarten (so 5) and then the local high school was putting on the play of it so we went to see it too. Also Mouse and the Motorcycle and Farmer Boy were early read-alouds. The Magic Tree House books were good – I would start reading and they wanted to find out what happened so they would read on their own – that happened at about 6. http://www.4tunate.net is another place that has reading suggestions for boys – she has quad boys who are 6 or so. Follow your boy’s lead, try things even that you think he might not like, try a variety, including non-fiction. I’m always learning interesting historical tidbits from their books. My husband also reads aloud to our boys – I think that is super important as well. So let him choose things that he’s interested in reading, too.

    2. I wouldn’t choose Charlotte’s Web for a 4 year old boy. Get your son involved in choosing what he wants you to read (as opposed to you reading what you think he wants.) Most boys like action type stories with a boy hero. I also like Magic Tree House books (but he may be a little too young.) June B. Jones books are great for preschoolers (this is a girl but she is so mischievous that boys will like this series too.) My son didn’t like dated books like the Box Car Children or Dr Seuss books (couldn’t relate to them.) Thomas the Tank Engine books are great for any boys who likes trains.

    3. I read that to my 4yo as well as The Cricket in Times Square, The Little House Books, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc. I think it really depends on the child. My eldest LOVED listening to books from a very young age. Just try it and see.

  5. I too read and workout. Since I do break into a run I bring a book just for the warm up and cool down portions of my run. I also love reading on the stationary bike at the gym when I am doing recovery days from long runs. If you ever do break into a run audio books work well too! As for summer reading, I limit screen times to 1 hour a day weekdays and that right away causes the children to seek out books either in real paper form or audio book form. I love it when I walk past their rooms and hear a book being read out load on CD as well as the sounds of Lego being dug through for their latest creation. Feeding the mind and the creativity at the same time.

    1. I listened to a podcast today while doing the weights. Good suggestion of the audio books!

  6. For me, it’s the last thing before bed. Hopefully an hour (no kids, just cats and a hubby). It’s how I wind down.

    The other week I had a stack of library books at work to return on my way home. Apparently, none of my coworkers read for pleasure. I am still boggled by this.

  7. Temps have been pleasant in the midwest and there’s nothing I love more than to get everyone outside with their books in the afternoon – a blanket on the grass, shade overhead, a water bottle and maybe a snack.

  8. Everyone reads on their own for 30 minutes each week day morning. We go to the library every Tuesday to get books for the week.

    Every night at bedtime, I read aloud for 30 minutes. We try to find books that interest everyone. Right now we are reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonder Land and Through the Looking Glass. Next on our list for read alouds are Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

    We usually read literature and relgious oriented books during the summer. We save non-fiction, academic topics for the school year.

  9. I love the idea of having a reading hour. I’m impressed that you get even the four year-old to concentrate on books for an entire hour. I want to give some thought to how we can implement something similar this summer.

    1. I’m not sure that she’s targeted the entire time. She’s my least into books kid. Probably since almost everyone else can read independently. I need to work on that.