Summertime is reading time for many people. For adults, it’s lying in a hammock, or on a beach blanket, enjoying a good book as often as possible. For kids, it’s often diving into the latest action adventure story (Rick Riordan’s The Red Pyramid, perhaps?) or being read loving stories by their favorite adults. Many libraries have extended summer programs that include story times, movies, crafts, and other events as well.

Some kids have a hard time getting into books. I never understood that myself, as I’ve always enjoyed reading (though admittedly not always “highbrow lit” like many people love—or claim to love!). Of course, I’m very lucky in that my parents read to me every day as a child. I think that has a lot to do with it. One of my college professors had two rules in his class; I can’t remember the first rule, but the second one was “Read to your children.” I think he was definitely onto something there.

One way we can encourage our kids to read is to participate in summer reading programs. I’m not a big fan of reward systems in general—dangling carrots in front of people’s noses to get them to do things is a primitive action that makes us look like circus trainers rather than humans, and I’m not comfortable doing that with kids. That said, it can still be fun to “win” prizes while you read; we won one of our favorite books last summer through our library’s reading program.

If you’d like to get involved in a summer reading program, first check with your local library and/or bookstore. They may have you read for a number of hours, or a number of books, in order to win prizes. Ours changes every year, and prizes include stencils, stickers, tattoos, erasers, and other fun things for my daughter’s age group (she is four).

There are also a bunch of online challenges you can take part in. One that I ran across recently is being hosted by one of my favorite blogs, No Time for Flashcards. The site hosts a plethora of wonderful activities and projects to do with young children, and the hostess is holding a weekly summer reading challenge. Parents can fill out a brief form listing which books their children read that week to enter for a gift card and an ebook of activities to do with children. Fun!

Kids ages seven and up can participate in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge as well. They can log on and enter the books they’ve read in order to compete in the World Record Reading Challenge. There are also lots of recommended books for various age groups at the site.