Summer Reading Clubs

Hi Everyone! I'm wondering what you are doing this summer with a reading club? If you are doing one, would you post what you are doing so the rest of us can enjoy your experiences this summer with you? And we can be praying for you and your club members! If you have pictures of your reading club in action, please post in the Photos area. Thanks!

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  • My husband and I serve in a mission church located in a mobile home park through our association. Our people are very poor, about 60 trailers are occupied, all anglo except for one african american and hispanic. It's not uncommon for people to get evicted, husbands to sometimes be absent or locked up. We do have a few families that have not experienced any of that though. They are soo precious! Our mission is five years old.

    We have had a library for a few years now. Normally, I have a theme for our Children's Summer Reading Club, but this year's is very different. Our reading club is for preschoolers - teenagers. They receive a prize for enrolling in our club and a prize after every three books that are read. We have an End of the Summer Reading Club party where we give away a Grand Prize for preschoolers and for children/teenagers.

    The difference this year is our prizes are crafts! In the letter I sent out I asked them to come join us as we discover ways to share about Jesus through crafts. For enrolling they receive a bookmark with stickers about Jesus. So, when family members/friends see their bookmark they can share what they know about Jesus. Three books is a word scratch off art that they hang in their room. When family members/friends see those words they can share what they mean about Jesus. Six books is Faith cross necklace with the colored beads they can use to share the plan of salvation OR have someone to read to them what the colors mean. You never know what may happen! :-) Nine books is a wooden yo yo they can decorate however they want with pernament markers. We will share with them about building relationships to share about Jesus. When they are playing with the yoyo with friends/family memebers they can share how they got it and something about Jesus. Twelve books is a mini keychain flashlight that they can decorate with markers. We will share with them about being a light in the world. To remember to pray for our missionaries who are being light too! So, it serves as a prayer reminder too. Learning to share about Jesus is not new to our children. They have heard of lots of simply every day ways to share about Jesus and how to use various items in natural conversations. They are so GREAT about bringing new people children and adults to our mission church!

    We keep track on the number of books each child reads. The one that reads the most receives the grand prize in each age group. The children also made a small poster that says Jesus Loves Me in the middle and decorated around the edges. They receive a Christian sticker for each book they read to put on their poster. We put them out in the hall so everyone can see. When the reading club is over they will be able to put their poster somewhere in their house or give it to someone. I do have several pictures of the children checking out books this year with their enrollment prize too I'll post. We currently have 12 children enrolled in our reading club. We ONLY have Christian books in our library for both adults and children. They can read secular books any time, but usually never do they have Christian books to read.
  • Our theme is "The Great Whitewater Reading Adventure". My teenage helper created a map of land and water for our bulletin board. I took clip art pictures of kayaks and each reader chose 1. As they read we move their kayak up the river on the map. Our reading club is open to all ages. (We find calling it a club rather than program gets a better response.) We started the 1st Sun. in June and mid Aug. we will end and give out awards which will be a certificate and a small prize.
  • We are doing "Pop Open a Good Book." This year though we purchased a small treasure chest and filled it with everything like candy, bookmarks, pencils and small toys. Instead of each reader getting a goody bag at the end for reading all their required reading, they get to pick one prize from the treasure chest for every five books they read. It's going really well.
  • Marty Brooks from Deatsville, AL emailed me the following about their book club:

    I wanted to let you know about the Summer Reading Club at my church. We include all ages. The Theme this year is "Books Change Lives". We are Blessed in our area because the schools allow us to send invitations home with the childred. So at the end of the year this summer we sent out 1000 invitations to join our summer reading club to the Elementry and Middle schoolers. On the back of the invitation to the reading club was an invitation to VBS. I'm happy to report that we have several children from the community participatin in the reading club. And they also particapated in the VBS along with others. We have the largest VBS ever for our church. Information about our reading club is also on our church web site www.shoalcreekchurch.org under the library ministry. the Full invitation was on there in May and June, I'm not sure if the info is archived or not and not sure when it will be changed.
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