Mood:  sharp

I must admit, being a camping family, we have not had time for much summer reading. Up until last year, we have spent our days out of school either working at Cedar Lake Camp or running our own day camps at Good News Mission. We have barely had time to breathe, let alone do a lot of reading. This summer, we are once again embarking on a new journey running what we call 1/2 day Day Camps at the mission (more details coming soon). However, unlike previous summers, we are going to make a concentrated effort to read more. The Literacy Company states that:

Studies of out-of-school reading habits of students have shown that even 15 minutes a day of independent reading can expose students to more than a million words of text in a year.

But, how do you get your children to read during what they often feel is their summer vacation from anything academic? Enter The Old School House Magazine's (TOS) Summer Reading Program. I know I've been blogging a lot about TOS lately. I have been gushing about it almost as much as that other favorite company that I promised not to often mention {Vision Forum}. However, their summer reading program is so neat, that I have to say something about it! It has contests, drawings, coloring contests, even a weekly online scavenger hunt with prizes for the kids! There's even something going on for parents! Unfortunately, this one is only for homeschoolers, but even if your kids go to public or private school, check it out. It may give you some great ideas for starting a summer reading contest at your house, or even in your own neighborhood. Just click on the logo at the top of the page, or any one of the highlighted Summer Reading Program links in this blog entry and have fun reading!                           

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