A Reading Under the Stars Party #SummerReading

This post is part of a sponsored campaign with Scholastic. We were compensated for this post, and writer Jennifer D. received promotional materials from EVEREADY® and Scholastic for her party. Her children and their friends were glad to pose for her photos and have some fun.

Kids and flashlights are a pretty winning combination. Part of the fun of spending time outdoors in the summer is being able to play with flashlights. My kids love them! Since we are readers, we were excited to take up Scholastic’s suggestion to have a Reading Under the Stars party.

Armed with books and EVEREADY® flashlights, my kids, nieces and a friend headed to the backyard to enjoy some of their favorite books. They each picked out their favorite spots and got comfy. It was fun. It felt like an adventure.

After reading via flashlight for a while, they took some time out to stargaze.

Earlier in the week I took summer reading kits — books, star-gazing charts, and flashlights with extra batteries — over to my neighbor kids to take on their family trip to Hawaii. Now that’s an adventure!

It can be a struggle to keep kids reading this summer, but it’s so important. Did you know that

• “Summer slide” accounts for up to 85% of the reading achievement gap between lower-income students and their middle- and upper-income peers.
• Learning or reading skill losses during the summer months are cumulative. By the time a struggling reader reaches middle school, summer reading loss has accumulated to a two-year lag in reading achievement.
• 3rd graders who can’t read on grade level are four times less likely to graduate by age 18 than proficient readers.

So keep with it, parents. Find ways to encourage reading all year long. Make it fun, whether it’s reading by flashlight in the backyard or under their covers past their bedtime. Encourage your kids to log their minutes in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge.

This year’s Summer Reading theme is Reading Under the Stars, and is powered by EVEREADY®, the maker of batteries and flashlights, to encourage families to discover new and fun ways to explore reading outside this summer.

Read my first post about Scholastic’s Reading Under the Stars Summer Reading Challenge to find out more about the features of the program.

Media links:
Scholastic Parents on Facebook
Scholastic on Twitter and Instagram
Summer Reading Challenge Pinterest Board
Summer Reading Challenge YouTube Playlist