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Summer vacation has barely started and I’m already fighting with Nathan about his summer reading. (Yes, I really do think he’s a Weirdo from Another Planet! and acts like Calvin at times.)

We’ve joined our local library’s summer reading program. To be eligible for all the rewards (coupons to the rec center, mini golf, fast food places, etc.) each child has to read (or be read to) for 21 hours from June 2 to August 8. Without timing it down the last second, I’m having Nathan and Lucie read 30 minutes a day, Monday through Friday. It’s a reasonable amount of time for an eight- and a five-year-old.

Nathan is also attending his school’s summer reading camp. The class is meeting three times this summer for an hour each time at the library. Nathan’s goal, set by his teacher, is to read 11 books in June.

Did You Really Read That?

This morning when he came to me with a pile of books he supposedly read in one hour between yesterday and today, I knew summer was going to be tough. Either Nathan choose books that were too easy, or he zoomed though them, reading a paragraph here and glancing at a picture there.

He claims to have read an old kid’s book called “The History of Chemistry” this morning. However, it’s 75 pages long, and would take me an hour to read it - and I read very quickly. So as his reward for such stellar behavior (not!) he has to read the whole book Saturday and tell his father, who has a Ph.D. in chemistry, what the book was about.

Thank goodness I don’t have this problem with Lucie. She loves books even though she can’t read yet. Since Nathan is the Wildest Brother, I have him to read to her out loud just so they can stop fighting for a few minutes - another big problem this summer.

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The kids and I are participating in our library’s summer reading program, Get Lost in a Book. The program started today and goes until July 22. The kids are to read (or be read to) two hours per week. For the adults, we need to read five books. We’ve been provided with log books as well. (We’re also logging in our hours and books over at Scholastic’s Summer Reading Buzz.)

The kids will get weekly prizes and a free swim party at the rec center for meeting their reading goals. The adults get a travel coffee mug and a chance to win gift certificates and other prizes if we meet our goals.

Today’s book was Usborne’s Aesop’s Fables I would read the story aloud, then Nathan would finish up by reading the moral of the story (the last paragraph). Nathan said he enjoyed the story and thanked me afterwards. I’m not so sure how much Lucie enjoyed it, since she spent most our story (half) hour climbing up and down the coach, but she thanked me too.

Me? Well, I’m indulging in a little scifi, Anne McCaffrey’s Acorna: The Unicorn Girl. I haven’t decided yet if I like it or not since it’s a bit on the silly side, but I’m hoping it gets better.

When I do an Usborne home show, I try to show the moms - and it’s always moms - how to use books to get closer to their kids. This is what I tell them:

When our kids are very small, we go through a time of intensive parenting. We worry about everything from, “Is he still breathing?” to “Will I ever get this kid potty trained?” Then they finally enter school, and we breathe a collective sigh of relief. “Whew! The tough part was over. They’re in someone else’s hands now!”

It’s natural that we want (and need) some times to ourselves to reconnect with hobbies, careers and passions we put aside when our kids were small. Now that they can dress, feed and entertain themselves most of the time, we feel we can sit back a little. But in reality, we can’t. Especially when they enter the middle school and high school years, the time when peer pressure is at its worse. It’s important to keep the lines of communication open and active, and one way to do that is through books and shared activities around those books.

As a president of a charter school I see how parental participation slacks off as kids get older. And this is at a school where volunteering 20-50 hours per school year is mandatory! It worries and saddens me to see that many parents stop caring. As long as the kids are getting good grades, they show little interest in their children’s school, friends, hobbies, or passions.

Maybe they think staying in touch with their child takes too much time. But in reality it’s as simple as reading books together! Even with older kids, you can take turns reading out loud. Discuss the stories around the dinner table or in the car. (Magazine and newspaper articles work well, too.) Try planning activities around the stories. Or use books, discussion, and activities to back up what’s being taught at school.

These are all good ways to Break the Communication Logjam. (For more terrific articles on reading, check out Scholastic’s website.) But how do you really do this? Sometimes the books do it for you and all you have to do is follow along and get a little creative.

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Here’s the low down on few book related contests and summer reading events happening on the Internet.

First Women’s Day magazine is sponsoring several book contests:

Win Rosemary Wells’ new book, My Shining Star: Raising A Child Who Is Ready To Learn(contest open until June 6) - click here to enter