The 2019 L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program

The 2019 L4LL Summer Reading Program is now live and available in the L4LL TpT store. 

If you're looking for a summer reading program created by Latinas for Latino children, this one really is remarkable. It has undergone a lot of changes as we have strived to find the best way to make the program accessible to families and educators.

The program includes tons of printable materials and culturally-based activities for your children to do on a variety of themes. Take a look...

Our free BASIC Summer Reading Program 

This consists of printable resources to help your kids have fun reading in English or Spanish during the summer. It contains:

• Our 2019 Summer Reading Lists
• Reading passport
• Reading logs
• Bookmarks
• Postcards
• Pledges
• Certificate of completion

You pick the materials that best suit your family’s/student’s needs.

Each year, we update our Summer Reading Lists to include new titles. You’ll only find Latino children’s literature on our lists as we strive to highlight this small – but important! – genre by Hispanic authors and illustrators. Choose books from our suggested 2019 reading lists of Latino children’s literature, or pick your own. Our program is easy, flexible, and fun!

ALL of the activity pages are available in English and Spanish.

Our Summer Reading CAMP 

This is a 10-week DIY Summer Reading Camp with culturally-based activities to develop reading and writing skills. It is for children ages 6 to 12 years old and includes more than 100 activity sheets designed to boost literacy skills over the summer break, as well as additional tools for educators and students. The program also includes original reading passages and illustrations by Latino children’s authors Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy, René Colato Laínez, and Lulu Delacre.

Each week covers a different theme:

1. Art/Arte
2. Family/Familia
3. Folklore/Folclore
4. Food/Comida
5. Immigration & Heritage/Inmigración y herencia
6. Music/Música
7. Nature/Naturaleza
8. Poetry/Poesía
9. Sports/Deportes
10. Summer/Verano

You can now buy the individual themes or save 10% when you buy the complete CAMP!

Again, all the activities are available in English and Spanish.

Head over to the L4LL TpT shop to download your copies!

Happy reading!

The 2018 L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program

Did you know that May is Bilingual Literacy Month?

So it is with extreme pleasure that I can share that the 2018 L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program is now live!

Five years ago, my business partner Viviana Hurtado, Ph.D. and I launched the first national online summer reading program for Latino families. Our goal was to support literacy among Latino children, who consistently come in last when it comes to literacy.

Our mission has been to raise literacy rates through pedagogically sound, culturally relevant content, and technology is rooted in our belief that all educational and professional achievement, as well as economic empowerment, rests on the mastery of basic reading skills.

The program has changed a lot over the course of these five years as we strived to find the right way to make it accessible to families and educators. And, in fact, Viviana and I stepped back from it for the last year or so as she started a new job and I managed my pregnancy, move to Texas, caring for my mother, and the birth of my baby. But we knew that we had a really great program, and we are happy to say that we think we have found the best way to bring it to bilingual families and educators. All of our reading programs are now available as direct downloads from both our newly updated website and our new TpT store. 

We have three programs available.

Our free BASIC Summer Reading Program 

This consists of printable resources to help your kids have fun reading in English or Spanish during the summer. It contains:

• Our 2018 Summer Reading Lists
• Reading passport
• Reading logs
• Bookmarks
• Postcards
• Pledges
• Certificate of completion

You pick the materials that best suit your family’s/student’s needs.

Each year, we update our Summer Reading Lists to include new titles. You’ll only find Latino children’s literature on our lists as we strive to highlight this small – but important! – genre by Hispanic authors and illustrators. Choose books from our suggested 2018 reading lists of Latino children’s literature, or pick your own. Our program is easy, flexible, and fun!

ALL of the activity pages are available in English and Spanish.

Our Summer Reading CAMP 

This is a 10-week DIY Summer Reading Camp with culturally-based activities to develop reading and writing skills. It is for children ages 6 to 12 years old and includes more than 100 activity sheets designed to boost literacy skills over the summer break, as well as additional tools for educators and students. The program also includes original reading passages and illustrations by Latino children’s authors Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy, René Colato Laínez, and Lulu Delacre.

Each week covers a different theme:

1. Art/Arte
2. Family/Familia
3. Folklore/Folclore
4. Food/Comida
5. Immigration & Heritage/Inmigración y herencia
6. Music/Música
7. Nature/Naturaleza
8. Poetry/Poesía
9. Sports/Deportes
10. Summer/Verano

You can now buy the individual themes or save 10% when you buy the complete CAMP!

Again, all the activities are available in English and Spanish.

The L4LL Latino Children’s Year-Round Program 

For those of you who really enjoy our Summer Reading CAMP and want to use it during the school year, this extension is for you!

We’ve created three additional themes for educators who would like to use our CAMP during the school year. These three themes are:

1. Holidays & Traditions/Fiestas y tradiciones
2. Famous Latinos/Latinos famosos
3. Seasons/Estaciones

The third theme, Seasons/Estaciones, is meant to replace the Summer/Verano theme in our Summer Reading CAMP.  This then gives you an additional 75 pages and a total of 12 full weeks of materials to complete over the course of the semester or year. You decide your time frame, we supply the base materials.

Like our CAMP, these themes contain culturally-relevant literacy activities to boost your students’ reading and writing skills. You’ll also receive reading suggestions relevant to each theme.


If you want to learn more about what activities are found in each theme, visit our website's shop or our new TpT store!

Oh, and YES! We're participating in TpT's sitewide sale in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, so if you take a look there, you'll find all of our products on sale up to 25%!

The 2017 L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program - FREE!

Hi, Friends!

A few years ago, a friend and I created the first online national summer reading program for Latino children. Since then, the L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program has grown tremendously. But we've listened to your feedback and are in the process of making changes.

However, this year's free summer reading program is still live! You can now download all of our summer reading materials for free from the Latinas for Latino Lit website.

The downloads are available in English and Spanish - you choose which materials best suit your needs. They include our annual summer reading lists, pledges, summer reading logs, reading passport, postcards, bookmarks, and a certificate of achievement.

It's designed to be flexible to allow you to implement it in your home, school or library program in a way that works best for you.

Be on the lookout for our other reading program materials, which will also be made available soon.

Happy reading!!

Reading Challenge Pura Belpré

Summer vacation is less than two weeks away for my family. And with it comes some much-needed relaxation and some serious playtime. We'll be hitting the pool two or three times a week, and my kids are already deep in the planning stages of fun crafts and activities they want to accomplish when they aren't swimming.

Although school will officially be over for us, that doesn't mean the learning stops. Summer provides its own unique learning opportunities. And I am alway careful to plan projects or activities that help my kids maintain what they've learned in school.

I'm also fortunate to be raising some avid readers. And I carefully nurture their love of books. So yes, we do participate in Summer Reading Programs, both online and at our local library. And of course, the L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program starts on June 1st - you can sign up for free!

But here's something that caught my eye yesterday: La Clase de Sra. Dufault has issued a Reading Challenge of Pura Belpré Award books! The challenge is simple. All you have to do is read all of the books that have received the Pura Belpré Award.

Pura Belpré was the first Latina librarian of New York City. If you don't know about her, there is a must excellent book written by Lucia Gonzalez and illustrated by Lulu Delacre titled, "The Storyteller's Candle." It shares her story of how she reached out to the Latino (mostly Puerto Rican) families in her community and made the library an important resource for all of them.

In 1996, the Pura Belpré Award was established to recognize Latino authors and illustrators for an outstanding children's book that reflects the Latino culture and experience. Next month, the award is celebrating its 20 anniversary at the annual ALA conference in Florida. (Anyone of you attending?)

Anyhoo, back to the Reading Challenge! So, La Clase de Sra. Dufault has issued this wonderful challenge, and she even has a free printable reading list you can download over on her blog. And her rules couldn't be simpler:

• There is no start or end date
• There is no stress!
• You don't have to read them in order. Just grab one and start reading!

I guarantee you will not be disappointed by any of the books. These award-winning stories are exceptional; masterfully written, beautifully illustrated, and examples of the diversity of the Latino culture. You can find a list of this year's winners here and a list of all the previous winners from years past over here. From Carmen Lomas Garza's Magic Windows to Pam Muñoz Ryan's The Dreamer, these books are engaging for children and parents alike.

And if your local library and bookstore don't carry these books, you can order them online from The Latin Baby Book Club store (aff). That link takes you directly to the section that lists all of the Pura Belpé books.

So don't wait! Head over and download your printable reading log today!

The Latino Children's Summer Reading Program Is Open!

Dear Familia, thank you so much for staying with me this past month as I practically abandoned this blog while I concentrated my full attention on the L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program. It is with the greatest relief that I announce that our new and improved program is officially open!

Check out our new English and Spanish websites. If you haven't registered yet, please do so. Your kids can win great prizes this summer such as Chromebooks, Google Play gift cards, school supplies, and books from publisher Lee & Low to help your family start a home library.

We have two (2!) FREE programs this year:

First is our basic Summer Reading Program for kids 0 - 18 years old. Yes, we absolutely know that most kids under 4 can't read very well on their own. But parents with children under 4 (yes, even newborns!) can register and pledge to read to their children over the summer (and we hope, year round). This program includes access to our 2015 Summer Reading Lists featuring Latino children's literature titles, printable and online reading logs, and many other printable materials.

I'm most excited about our Summer Reading CAMP for kids 6 - 12 years old. I've agonized over this curriculum for the past two years and this year, it includes contributions from some of my favorite Latino children's authors and illustrators. Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy, René Colato Laínez, and Lulu Delacre have be wonderful supporters of Latinas for Latino Lit and our programs for Latino children's literacy from the very beginning. I'm looking forward to working with additional authors and illustrators in the years to come.

The CAMP has lots of fantastic reading passages, poems, and other activities to boost your child's literacy skills during this critical time in their academic life. We have crafts, drawing activities, storytelling projects, and so much more.

I really hope that all of you will take advantage of the program this summer and use it to build your children's literacy skills.

I must end this post with a sincere, heartfelt thank you to Google for believing in our program. From the very beginning two years ago, they've provided endless support to make the Latino Children's Summer Reading Program possible.

Have questions? Join us today 6/1/2015 at 12p EST Watch our quick hangout on our YouTube channel for our live program overview and new features, including this year's digitized, mobile-friendly program. Click on our Facebook or our Google+ pages to navigate to our hangout.

So what are you waiting for? Go and register today!

Early Registration for the 2015 #L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program Opens!

I am SO excited to announce that early registration for the L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program has officially opened!

Over the last two summers, we've listened carefully to your feedback and this year's program reflects your requests.

First, thanks to our underwriters, we're pleased to announce that the entire program is FREE for both families and groups.

Second, you're going to love our new, family-friendly website! Once you register, parents and even children can login to our site on June 1st to access both of our summer reading programs. Here's a brief description of the two and how they differ:

Third, you can officially save the titles of the eight books your child reads (or that you read to your child) over the course of the summer as he or she reads them with our new easy, online reading log.

As in both previous years, both programs are available in English and Spanish, and all of the materials have been updated.

Now the absolute BEST part is our online Summer Reading Camp. Designed for children in 2nd through 6th grade, it includes so many wonderful literacy boosting activities, including original work by Latina authors and illustrators! Your students can explore 10 themes: Art, Music, Sports, Folklore, Food, Summer, Nature, Heritage & Immigration, Family, and Poetry. Infused with culture, each one comes with a reading passage and games or activities that strengthen reading and writing skills, as well as additional reading recommendations to fit each theme.

I can't wait to share some snapshots of the camp with you, but will have to wait until we're closer to June 1st.


And did I mention that this year's program is open to GROUPS for FREE, too?

Educators: Once you register your group, you'll receive a Group Number that you can share with your students. When they sign up with your number, we'll be able to track them in our system and send you monthly reports on how your students are progressing over the summer.

Parents: Need help nudging your child's school to participate? Download and share our flyer with them!

So what are you waiting for? Head over to our new L4LL Summer Reading website and register your family or group!

Free Download: L4LL DIY Summer Reading Camp in Spanish and English

I already shared this on my MM Facebook page, but I'm delighted to announce that the translator is finished and did an amazing job (Thank you, Lorraine!), and the files have been officially uploaded! Our L4LL DIY Summer Reading Camp is officially available in English AND SPANISH!

Who can download it?

Freemium subscribers: If you signed up for our basic, free summer reading program, you should be able to purchase the individual weeks (there's 10 weeks of 100+ activity pages divided into 10 themes) for $6. Check your emails on Monday for the link to the Spanish files.

Premium subscribers: If you already purchased the premium membership for $50 and are using the English version, just check your Accounts page to pull up the Spanish files and download them to your computer. (Don't forget, you save $10 when you buy the Premium subscription, and $15 when you use my coupon code - mm1410 - only for MommyMaestra readers!)

What does it include?

TEN weeks of activity pages to strengthen your child's literacy skills in English and/or Spanish. More than 100 printable pages are divided into 10 themes: Folklore, Sports, Art, Poetry, Immigration & Heritage, Nature, Summer, Music, Food, and Familia. I designed all of these with my own children in mind: I wanted to focus on fun while building their literacy skills.

The first week is Folklore and my children have been busy doing the English version. We focused on a different activity each day over this past week. We started off reading The Bossy Gallito by Lucía González, since it is on the recommended reading list that comes with each theme (these titles are in addition to the ones on our Summer Reading Lists), then the kids colored in their Fairy Tale Bingo Cards and we laminated them for extra durability before we played a bunch of rounds.

Then they filled out the Fairy Tale Storyboard, where they drew scenes from six different tales. Check out my daughter's completed storyboard below. She included both Ratoncito Perez, Cucarachita Martina, and Señor Gato (I don't really remember his story, but she said it was from another book by Lucía González).

Next it was time to make our own storytelling cards. My kids are big drawers, so they made a list of random items: people, places, things. Then drew them out.

They did a few more activities and ended the week learning the difference between folklore and fairy tales.

The L4LL blog is also posting additional resources such as videos and craft tutorials each week to complement that week's theme. This past Wednesday we shared an awesome video about Latino Folk Tales.

Free Download

Because I know you'd want to sample a page before you purchase anything, I have a free printable for you to enjoy. This freebie has the English and Spanish version. I had SUCH a hard time deciding what to offer you because there are so many awesome activities, but in the end I figured one of the cover pages would be best because every themed file has one at the beginning and it gives you an idea of what types of activities are included in the pack. Each week's activity pack comes with approximately 10 activity pages for your child to complete over the course of the week. 

Click here to download your sample page

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

L4LL's 2014 Latino Children's Summer Reading Program Opens

I've been neglecting this blog lately. And the truth is that it is because I've been working almost non-stop on this year's L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program.

And I'm SO PLEASED to announce that registration opens today!

Like last year, you can subscribe to the program for free and download our 2014 Reading Lists featuring Latino children's literature titles written by and about Latinos. And you can also download our free summer reading kits that include a pledge to read, reading logs, and a certificate of achievement to recognize your child's reading efforts over the summer. And yes, they are still available in English AND Spanish.

But this year we have added an exciting new element to the program. Our Premium Subscription gives your family access to our new DIY Summer Reading Camp that includes more than 100 printable activities to boost your child's literacy skills. Designed for children in 2nd through 6th grade, the 100 printables are divided into 10 engaging themes, such as Art, Music, Sports, and many others. These 10 themes are meant to cover our 10-week summer reading program. Each week, your family can explore a different theme together and try a different activity each day. While parental guidance and participation is encouraged, it is not required for children who are reading at grade level. All of the themed camps include additional reading recommendations for Latino children's literature related to each theme. And all of them are full of culturally-based crafts and activities.

UPDATE: A SPANISH version of all these printables now available! You can purchase the individual files each week for only $6 through your free subscription, or just get them all at once with a Premium subscription.

Additionally, if you are concerned about the materials meeting educational benchmarks, you might be happy to know that all of the 10 themes are Common Core aligned.

If you don't care about Common Core, then you can rest assured you don't have to worry about it. ALL of the printables were designed with children (my own!) in mind FIRST and created to be engaging and FUN while helping to develop literacy skills. There is a modest fee of $50 for the Premium subscription. This one time payment covers the entire summer and gives access to every printable in our summer reading program. That equals $5 a week.

However, MommyMaestra readers get 10% off the cost of a Premium Subscription. Just enter the coupon code mm1410 when you checkout.

While the L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program officially runs from June 1st to August 10th, you can head over there today, subscribe and receive immediate access to our program downloads so you can start preparing for June 1st.

ALL subscribers (both those who subscribe to our Freemium and Premium subscriptions) can take part in our summer reading program and all of those subscribed families who submit a list of 8 books that your child(ren) read over the summer are automatically entered to win great prizes, such as free school supplies, Nexus tablets, Google Play gift cards and more.

So head on over to Latinas4LatinoLit.org and sign up today!

Host Your Own Summer Reading Party

Can you believe that the summer is just about half over?? Madre mia! Where is the time going? We have been busy, busy, with swimming, science experiments, movies, and...READING! Of course, we are participating in the Latino Children's Summer Reading Program. But that's not all. We're involved in our local library's SRP, and are keeping up with several reading sites for fun ideas, crafts, printables, activities, and more. And one of my favorites is Education.com, which has a free DIY summer reading camp that they've created in cooperation with PBS KIDS. I love the fact that all of these reading programs can complement each other and keep my kids busy every week with literacy-based activities.

This past week, we even hosted a summer reading party for some of our friends using a kit from PBS KIDS. It included books, postcards, reading logs, bookmarks and more. And while all the goodies were fun, it was the activity we chose to engage the kids that was really the best part of the party.

Education.com has many activities to choose from, but we decided to work on maintaining and developing their math skills with the Math Bugs activity. A dozen kids attended our little party and all of them enjoyed the idea of making bugs out of numbers. From ladybugs out of zeros, to a pair of butterflies from the number eleven, the kids used their imaginations to make all sorts of crawly insects like spiders, moths, snails and more. We had the older kids helping the younger ones and even one of the adults jumped in on the action and made her own craft. :) And I think seeing an adult participating helped to motivate some of the kids. The supplies were simple: colored pencils, construction paper, pipe cleaners, googly eyes and glue! I think the neatest part is that after they create their insect masterpieces, they can then use their numbers to build simple or complex math problems by adding, subtracting, or even multiplying the numbers together.

But really, there are SO MANY great activities on the site to consider. Younger children may enjoy making their own I Spy Alphabet Bottle, while older kids my prefer Word Girl's Synonym Salad. But don't worry if you have a wide age range of kids. Just do what I did and put the older kids in charge of helping the younger ones assemble their crafts. 

Now why can't you host your own reading party? All you have to do is print up some bookmarks and reading logs, read a few books, and then choose a craft to keep the kids engaged and excited about summer learning. You could even invite each guest to bring a book to swap and at the end of the party, each guest takes home a new book to read. (We're all about recycling, you know.)

Just look at all the fun these kids had:

Keeping the kids involved in summer learning activities is really important to me because experts say that all kids lose ground – in math, reading or other areas – if they don’t engage in learning activities over the summer. So in addition to summer camps, vacation bible school, and our reading programs, I'm scouring the web and even looking at television programs.  PBS KIDS is in the middle of 10 weeks of themed programming to inspire children ages 2-8 to explore and learn. Each week features episodes from a different PBS KIDS series.

The line-up includes:

• WILD KRATTS – “Bug Week,” starting June 3                       
• SUPER WHY! – “Super You Week,” starting June 10
• SESAME STREET – “Literacy Quest Week,” starting June 17           
• MARTHA SPEAKS – “Puppy Week,” starting June 24           
• CURIOUS GEORGE – “Creative George Week,” starting July 1                     
• DINOSAUR TRAIN – “Dinosaurs A-Z” starting July 8             
• DANIEL TIGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD – “Let’s Play Outside Week,” July 15                  
• THE CAT IN THE HAT KNOWS A LOT ABOUT THAT! – “Let’s Get Wet Week,” starting July 22        
• ARTHUR – “Sports Week,” starting July 29               
• WORDGIRL® – “What’s Up With WordGirl Week,” starting August 5

Remember that it is important to limit your child's screen time. But I do admit that in the summer, I'm not as strict as I am during the school year. I take comfort in the fact that I know they are watching educational programming and I don't have to worry about commercials, or the content of the shows they are watching.

How do you keep your kids busy learning throughout the summer?

Disclosure: I am a PBS KIDS Ambassador, which means I occasionally receive special announcements and educational products to review and share with you. All thoughts and opinions are my own, however. 

Get Latino Teens Reading

In case you missed it, yesterday Latinas 4 Latino Literature announce the Young Adult Challege portion of their Latino Children's Summer Reading Program. To motivate teens to read this summer, they're giving away 10 Chromebooks and 10 Nexus 7 tablets donated by the summer reading program's naming sponsor, Google.

To be eligible to win, the teens must read 8 books over the summer and submit a video book review on one Latino (children's) literature title that they've read. Easy, no?

So if you know or have a child between the ages of 12 and 18, it's time to get them reading!

Learn more here.

L4LL Launches Latino Children's Summer Reading Program

In case you missed seeing it this weekend on my Facebook page, I just wanted to share with your the official launch of Latinas for Latino Literature's biggest project yet: The Latino Children's Summer Reading Program!

It's true that there are other summer reading programs by recognizable giants in the education world, and some even offer Spanish-language components to their program. But our program is the only one online designed specifically for Latino families with children who are newborns all the way up through high school. We know that parents are the key to success, and so we even provide those of you with children who are still too young to read a way to help them develop their pre-literacy skills so they can start school well prepared.

So I'm sure that you will forgive me for neglecting MommyMaestra last week. My dear amiga, Viviana (The Wise Latina Club), and I were "burning the morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and midnight oil" (as she likes to put it) while getting everything ready to launch on Saturday. We are especially thankful to Google, our naming sponsor, who has partnered with us to bring you additional tools and resources to help promote literacy in your home. And who spent hours patiently teaching us everything we needed to know to do things right. Their team is simply fabulous.

With the Latino Children's Summer Reading Program, we challenge Latino students and parents of young children to read a minimum of 8 books during the 10-week summer vacation period. We've created printables like pledges you and your child can print, sign, and hang up to help remind you to read every day this summer. You'll also be able to download reading logs, and even a certificate of achievement that you can present to your child at the end of the summer. All of our printables are available in English or Spanish.

And because we love to see Latino children's literature in the hands of our kids, we also put together three reading lists with some titles that we love and recommend. They are not mandatory, just fun suggestions.

In addition, we'll be revealing lots of great resources, more printables, as well as contests and prizes throughout the summer.

And the absolute bestest part ever? IT'S ALL FREE!

Just head right over here to register and start downloading all the free reading goodies.

Happy reading to all!

Con mucho cariño...

~Monica

Join Our Reading Party! {GIVEAWAY}

I love summer. My kids do, too. And what better way to kick it off than by throwing a party? Not just any party, mis amigos, pero a READING PARTY. (Ummm...does it get any better than that? ¡Creo que no!)

You probably know by now that for me, any excuse will do to promote reading and literacy in our kids. So I was thrilled when I got the chance to host a reading party for our 4-H group (which just so happens to be made up of our fellow homeschoolers).For the third year in a row, the iVillage PBS KIDS Summer Reading Community Challenge is back. And thanks to them, I was able to share all the fabulousness you see filling the tables above. Our little jackpot reading party kit consisted of lots of coloring sheets, activities, bookmarks, book plates, stickers, tatoos, notepads, reading charts, pencils, and of course, BOOKS! Want a better look? Okay...

The challenge runs from June 18 to July 27 and features free literacy-building resources, for parents and children, designed by the experts at PBS Parents and PBS KIDS. You can sign up for daily activity assignments, delivered by email. The activities will be provided by Challenge Coaches Angela Santomero, creator, executive producer and head writer of SUPER WHY!, and Jessica Wollman, vice president, Editorial Products & Digital Programming at Scholastic. And if you have any questions, you can ask Angela or Jessica. They're happy to answer parent questions and offer advice throughout the online event.

During the summer, I'm a lot more relaxed about what my kids read. During the school year, I'm careful to provide them with biographies, classics, and a lot of non-fiction. But in the summer, I let the kids pick out more of the type of books they like (ummm...yes, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and the Hardy Boys are at the top of the list). The only thing I don't ease up on is that I expect them to read at least once a day for a minimum of 20 minutes. But when armed with books they've chosen, that 20 minutes easily slips into 30 or more.

To help you all out, the nice people over at Scholastic have kindly offered all MommyMaestra readers an extra 10% off any of the Summer Challenge titles sold at ScholasticStore.com. Just use the coupon code: READ10. The offer ends August 31st, 2012.

THE GIVEAWAY

Now, since I was not able to invite all of you dear readers to our party, I saved one of the goody sets (shown above), and I asked PBS if I could give it away. "Of course!" they said.

So one lucky reader will receive all the items shown above (EXCEPT for the green logo button. They only sent one and my daughter has already claimed it.)

To enter, simply leave a comment below.

The deadline to enter is 11:59 EST, Sunday, June 17th (Happy Father's Day!). The winners will be chosen using Random.org. and contacted via email - so be sure to leave a valid email address in your comment! (If I have no way to contact you, I'll have to choose someone else!)

And to increase your chances of winning, you can:

1) Like PBS KIDS on FB.

2) Follow the MommyMaestra FB page.

3) Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following: Win a @PBSKIDS & @iVillage reading kit for your child from @LatinMami http://bit.ly/MPkc1w #giveaway

Don't forget to let me know by posting a separate comment for each entry!

By entering this giveaway, you agree to the Official Sweepstakes Rules. No purchase required. Void where prohibited.

¡Buena suerte!

Disclosure: I was asked to host a reading party by PBSKIDS and iVillage. They sent me the reading party kit. I saved one set of materials and asked permission to give it away on MommyMaestra. All reading love (opinions) written above is strictly my own obsessive ramblings.

The LBBC's 2011 Summer Reading List is Now Available

Do you follow my other site, the Latin Baby Book Club? Each year, we publish a summer reading list. And the 2011 edition is now live! This is a great resource for bilingual families who are helping their kids maintain their reading skills during the summer by participating in a library or online summer reading program.

These summer reading lists are super because they don't offer an overwhelming number of titles, but they do list a variety of books for newborns to young adults.

I already mentioned some great online programs, so I won't do that again. But don't forget that the LBBC and MommyMaestra also have some free printable reading logs in English and Spanish to help you and your kids keep track of their reading progress. (You can find them in my sidebar under "Free Downloads.")

Summer Break Reading Programs

I've been investigating summer reading programs to help my daughter maintain and even develop her literacy skills during the next few months. I've already mentioned the Scholastic Summer Challenge, which is my favorite. But here are several more for you to choose from (or why don't you do them all?)

Summer Break with BOOK IT! - Yesterday, I shared with you information on the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! reading program that runs during the school year. But they also have a great summer reading program and an excellent website with lots of printables (I've already downloaded most of them!) for teachers and parents. They've even got recipes to go with book suggestions! And the best part? Kids in K - 6th who read 5 books or more this summer can enter to win fabulous prizes. They even have an entry form in Spanish!

Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program - Kids earn a free book when they read any eight (8) books and record them in a reading journal downloadable at the Barnes & Noble website. Children must choose their free book from a selection of approved titles, but some are available in Spanish. I was especially delighted to see that their reading journal (which you can download from their website) is also available in Spanish. They also offer a free Parent Activity Kit and and Educator Kit. In addition, parents' can enter to win a Nook Color for their family with the submission of one completed journal!

Feed Your Brain Summer Reading Program (from Half Price Books) - Kids 14 and under keep track of their time spent reading this summer, and those who read 600 minutes or more will receive a $5 Back-to-School Bucks summer reading reward! Readers are divided into age groups and the top reader from each group will receive a $20 HPB Gift Card. English only registration form (Boo!). At least you can spend your gift card on some bilingual books if they have any in stock!

Borders' Double-Dog Dare - Children 12 and under who read 10 books this summer, get one book free from Borders. Children must print off and fill out the official form from the Borders' website, and then submit the completed form to any of their stores (Borders, Borders Express, Waldenbooks). Again, your child has to choose their free book from a selection of 10 titles - none of which are bilingual or bicultural in nature. And they do not offer the official form in Spanish. Come on, Borders! This is the 21st Century!


Con mucho cariño...

The Scholastic Summer Challenge Is Waiting For You!

The Scholastic Summer Challenge has officially begun! Last year, students around the world logged 52,710,368 reading minutes. Were you one of them?

Studies show that many children fall behind during the summer months and have to relearn concepts in the fall once school starts again. One way that parents can help their children is to encourage them to set up a summer reading program. Make it fun by printing up reading charts, bookmarks, book plates, and more. Then sit down and set goals together. For example, you might decide that your child should read 15 minutes a day, one chapter book a week, or 20 pages every night before bed. Be sure to reward your child for the effort that he or she puts forth.

Latino children especially, need to work on developing and maintaining their literacy skills. Summer is a valuable time that parents can use to help their niños strengthen their reading skills. This is also an opportunity to read books that your child will enjoy, but might not get a chance to read in school. And I also believe that this is the perfect time to promote cultural pride and explore the diversity both within our Spanish-speaking world and outside of it. To help you get started, download the Día de los Niños Booklist that the Latin Baby Book Club has put together to celebrate diversity within the Latino culture.

If you decide to participate in the Scholastic Summer Challenge, your child can go to their site and log their reading minutes. And as added incentive to read, your child can tackle weekly challenges and be entered to win digital prizes for completing weekly goals.

Parents can also use the site to learn ways to encourage their child to read more this summer, find booklists, print activity sheets and reading certificates, as well as download the Family Participation Guide, which helps you discover ways to use the Summer Challenge at home. The guide include pledge cards, reading logs, a certificate of achievement, various Word Girl activity sheets, and more. You can even sign up to receive weekly emails about your child's reading success.

Teachers can also use the site to track their students reading progress throughout the summer. They can take advantage of the booklists, too, and download the Classroom Participation Guide to incorporate the Summer Challenge into lesson plans.

The best part of this summer reading program is, in my opinion, the fact that it is easy and open to children and families everywhere.

To register your children or students, head on over to the Scholastic Summer Challenge website and get started!

Con mucho cariño...

Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way to write this post. We are just avid readers and Word Girl fans! Word up!