Summer Reading Plans 2020

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Ordinarily, we take advantage of the summer reading program offered by our library. Our children love being able to track their reading progress on the booklets distributed and receive stickers or pencils as they share with the librarians. I do not know if our library will be holding the summer reading program this year as we still don't have an opening date for our public library. So, this year we may have to do something different.


There are many options online if you wish to track your children's reading. In fact, I downloaded one from HelpTeaching.com which we will be reviewing soon. Our son was very excited to read the selection of books suggested. It lists 15 suggestions including reading a poem, reading a magazine, and reading a book your parents read when they were a kid. So, for our younger son, we will be using these two pages to track his summer reading progress.

We also have the opportunity to Read Across the USA with Timberdoodle. As you may remember, I have reviewed products for Timberdoodle in the past including two items that are part of their upcoming 2020-2021 curriculum packages (Djeco Artistic Patch Cosmos and 1000-Piece Periodic Table Puzzle). This summer they are offering a cool bundle which includes the Across the USA 2020 Summer Reading Challenge Ebook and the Build a Giant Poster Coloring Book: United States Map. The Ebook has one page of book suggestions for every state as well as a map and reading log to track your children's books. If your family reads books representing 20 or more states, you can also receive Timberdoodle reward points on their website. Be sure to check out all the information and purchase your bundle here: Across the USA.

What Are We Reading This Summer?

I seem to have trouble following a specific to-read list as has been evidenced by that I still haven't read all the books on my 2018 to-read list (you can read that list here: Book Club: Reading List for 2018). I would like to finally read the Flight of the Raven as I received it last year for my birthday and it has been sitting and waiting for me on my coffee table. I also have a number of books to review that should be arriving soon. And each summer I like to read at least one biography of an individual from the American Civil War.

If our library opens back up, our younger son will probably be reading The Boxcar Children series as we discovered just before the lockdown that they have an entire shelf of the books. If our library does not open soon...we have quite a number of Who Was books that he has been reading for homeschool. For example, as we were studying the state of Illinois using Hands-On Notebooking: The United States from SchoolhouseTeachers.com, he read Who Was Abraham Lincoln? to complete his work.

Our daughter and I have been reading together the Circle C Beginnings series of books that she received for Christmas. We first discovered Susan K. Marlow last year when we reviewed Goldtown Beginnings Series (you can read our review here: Learning About History While Reading Fun Children's Books). Both our son and daughter loved them so we looked at other books written by Marlow. Don't tell our son but he will be getting the next two in the Goldtown Beginnings series for his birthday in mid-June.

I am really excited to get started with the Read Across the USA Challenge from Timberdoodle and the elementary reading challenge. I think our children will have so much fun with both challenges. And the two challenges can even complement each other!

What are your summer reading plans? Do you have a list you would like to read or do you pick up whatever book interests you the most? Or perhaps you prefer to buy the latest releases and read those during the summer?