Sign Your Kids Up for Summer Reading While Libraries Are Closed

Participating in the summer reading program at my local library was always a Very Big Deal when I was growing up. I’d ride my bike to the library (this was a thing we could do!), submit my lists of titles and, in return, I’d receive raffle tickets that might earn me a free T-shirt. Or a frisbee! Or, if I was really lucky, a coupon for a free ice cream cone or slice of pizza.

We signed my son up for the reading program at our library for the first time last summer and he relished filling out the form, just as I had decades earlier. They offered different levels of rewards based on the number of books or amount of time he spent reading. In the end, he was was quite pleased to have earned the prize he wanted most—a free meal from a local restaurant.

With libraries still closed in many places, the summer reading program might seem like yet another thing to be cancelled because of the coronavirus—but if ever there was a summer when kids need to keep reading, it’s the summer after months of remote, cobbled-together learning. And thankfully—since we’re getting really good at living virtual lives—Scholastic is offering us a free summer “Read-a-Palooza” program kids can participate in online.

To get involved, kids will need to create a Home Base account. There, they’ll have access to full books, live events and book-based games and activities. They’ll be able to track their “reading streaks” (the number of days in a row in which they read), and for every two days in a row that they do so, Scholastic will donate one book to a child in need—with a goal of donating 100,000 books by July. The longer their reading streaks are, the more “digital experiences” kids will open up. They can also log their reading minutes within Home Base, and parents can access downloadable reading reports.

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Beyond that, there are no other “prizes” for kids to earn in the “Read-a-Palooza.” But you could set up your own additional rewards’ system at home: Start by deciding on the milestones you’d like them to hit (maybe after every 10 books completed or every 10 hours of reading) and then come up with “prizes” they can earn for reaching each of them. Here are some prize ideas to get you started:

You might also check to see if your local library or school district has any remote summer reading program plans in the works this year.

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