GIVEAWAY: I am giving awayDUDE: Fun with Dude and Betty AND a pile of Magic Tree House early chapter books.

To WIN: Please Tweet andStumble Upon this post andleave a comment telling me that you did it. The first dozen or so people who do this will win. Basically, everyone wins until my pile is depleted.

There are buttons on the bottom of this post to make this easy to do.

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It’s the summer or very close. Tomorrow is our last day of school. Some years my kids have summer reading homework but this year everyone is scott free. Still, I want them to read for pleasure this summer which will take some coaxing, especially for PickyKidPix who needs a school assignment as a motivation to read.

Since I live in Boston or thereabouts, we do have seasons and, being born and raised in California, summer in New England sure beats snow, sleet and torrential rain. Our summers have been pretty consistently filled mostly with a slower schedule of extracurriculars (no Spanish, Chinese, flute, karate, guitar and soccer games!) and replaced with trips to the ice cream parlor (for a “cool down”), day camps, dim sum and outings outside.

This summer will be a first for us as the two oldest have insisted on going to sleepaway camp. I’m not sure if I will like a quieter house but their younger brother is looking forward to being an only child for a few weeks. Their summer camp schedule was crafted individually for each of them to explore their interests that include soccer, cooking, and lego robotics. I also hope that my son passes the deep end test this year too as I am tired of being on DefCom 5 anytime he’s near the water.

As for summer reading, my kids have ALL told me that there is nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, at all to read in our house. As usual, the cobbler’s kids are barefoot but in our case, they have lots of shoes to choose from, they just don’t seem to want any of the myriad of choices presented to them. So typical, right?!

My strategy is to get them to read books set in the summer. It’s sort of fun to see what other experiences the characters in these books have during the same period of time as my kids. In each of these books, there is something special about each summer that my kids can relate to either as something that is similar to their own experiences or empathetically as something that they have to imagine.

In any case, thank goodness that it’s summer time! And let the reading and chilaxing begin! What are your kids reading and doing this summer? Is there just ONE thing that you want your kid to accomplish this summer? Please share!

p.s. For me:

Music Lovers: I would love for her to learn to cook one dinner that the entire family will eat without complaining from her week of cooking class. Then, ok I am sneaky, I would like her to make it next school year!

PickKidPix: I want her to discover a love of reading such that she’s reading for pleasure. I would love to discover her up late at night secretly reading because her book is too good to put down.

Youngest: I want him to pass the deep end test.

My summer reading book list is here.