Love, Life, & Beyond

Summer holidays are a time for children to unwind and enjoy leisure activities. However, what if we could disguise educational activities as fun without them realising it? Blending education and recreation will help reduce screen time while they continue to develop skills and knowledge without feeling like they are being burdened with more schoolwork.

I am fortunate to live in a large gated community with many kids and parents willing to organise and participate in community events. However, the long and hot summer months can often leave kids feeling bored with a lot of pent-up energy as parents refrain from sending them to play in the sun. I wanted to encourage a Summer of Reading program filled with fun events for the kids so that they are productively engaged indoors during their holidays. 

Reading is an essential skill for kids to develop, not just for academic purposes but for personal growth as well. However, with the high focus on academics in most households, kids don’t get time to read for pleasure. After reading study material all day, they prefer mindless screen time to unwind. 

The aim of organising a Summer of Reading activities for kids was to help them find the joy of reading books. I hope this post encourages you to try something similar in your communities.

A Guide to Organising a Community Reading Program for Children

Community reading programs for kids are essential in fostering a love for reading, enhancing social skills, and encouraging creativity. Organising these programs requires careful planning and support from the community. 

Organising a community event can be a challenging task, but it is incredibly rewarding. We wanted to keep the events non-monetary and non-competitive. There were no prizes or winners; all materials were brought by the participants and needed to be eco-friendly.

Firstly, we identified our target audience as children aged 5 and 12. Although other age groups were welcome to participate, we noticed limited interest from them. Our main goal was to encourage children to socialise and discuss books while keeping the program simple and flexible.

Next, we formed a team of dedicated volunteers willing to donate their time to organising the events. I reached out to the team responsible for managing the community library, and they were eager to help get things moving.

Our community provides several car-free open spaces and a community hall that we could use for the programmes. We carefully selected activities that were easy to organise and would garner high participation while also being enjoyable for the children.

Summer of Reading Activities for Kids

Community reading programs for kids are an essential aspect of a community’s cultural and educational development. They provide an opportunity for children to engage with literature, develop their reading skills, and foster a love of books. Here are some of the activities we planned this year:

Library spaces

We have two dedicated spaces for libraries, one for kids and one for teens and adults. They rely on donated books and volunteers. Many donors used this space to empty their bookshelves without checking what they dumped in the shared library. We had to sift through many boxes of school notebooks, completed worksheets, and torn books to get the good stuff to keep on the shelves.

The senior library is run on an honour system, where people can borrow and return books based on their convenience. The junior library is run by volunteers who open it and help kids check out books.

We’re also trying to spruce up the spaces so it’s more inviting for everyone.

Book Swap

This was a community-wide event open to all ages. We asked kids to get books they wanted to swap and negotiate a deal between themselves. We also had a pile of books that were for giving away. These were books we had more than two copies of in the library and books that we didn’t want to keep in the library (study material).

We sent out a notice to all residents a week before and held the event in a central space outdoors so it was visible to everyone who walked by. This helped us get more participants. The kids, too, had a fun morning scoping out the book piles and trying to swap from their stash.

A free book exchange is a wonderful low-waste community event. Books get circulated among readers instead of collecting dust on a shelf, encouraging bookworms to come out of their reading nooks and interact with other readers.

Bookmark-making event

We mixed up some arts and crafts with our passion for reading. Participants were to bring their own materials (although we had a box of extra papers and tools) and make as many bookmarks as they wanted. They could donate some of their creations to the library if they wanted to. These we kept in a box at the junior library that readers can use when they check out a book.

We wanted this activity to be outdoors to encourage creativity in the open air. We chose a smaller play area in the community which is usually shaded by a large tree and remains cool in the evenings. It was great to see kids collaborating and interacting with each other while making some interesting art.

Storytelling By Kids For Kids

This event happened by chance. We had been trying to find someone who could read to the children for different age groups, but we were finding it difficult to coordinate timings. So, why not have kids tell a story for other kids? 

We wanted to audition the kids so that we had an idea of the number of participants and to give them pointers for better performance. They could perform individually or as a group, and kids over 9 years of age had to present an original story or poem.

The event helped kids get comfortable speaking in front of an audience and was a great confidence-building exercise for them. We gave all participants some homemade candies and bookmarks. We also had two older kids judge the participants’ oration and creativity. These special mentions were given handmade certificates. 

Hearing the stories kids came up with and their creative presentations was a wonderful experience for all of us.

Bookclub

A book club was in the works for the adults for a long time. However, an online book club meeting seemed more practical since everyone is adulting with hectic schedules.

I collaborated with my sister to create an Instagram page to get as many readers from different parts of the country as possible to participate. Our goal is to read books from a diverse selection of authors and themes.

We chose a book and publicised the meeting over Instagram and our personal contacts. We gave everyone a time frame of 2 weeks to order and read the book. Fortunately, the author of our first book selection helped spread the word as well, and she even sent us a message to share with our group.

We sent a personal message with the meeting details to those interested in joining the meeting. We met over Skype as they offer free video calling, and no downloading of apps is required.

Of course, we didn’t expect our first meeting to have a large turnout, but we hope to build a reading community that meets regularly over time.

Storytelling for Toddlers

Our last reading event was storytelling for toddlers and younger kids. Some older kids and parents volunteered their time and skills to read picture books or tell a story for the tiny tots. It was an engaging activity for the kids, and we hope it will get them started on their reading journey as they grow.

Other Activities for kids during the Summer Holidays

Art classes

There are many art classes available for kids. I do not send my son to them because most of them want a certain outcome instead of encouraging kids to follow their creative hearts. If you cannot find someone who encourages originality and creativity, then why not host an arts and crafts class at your home? You don’t even need a lot of materials.

Art from Scraps is exactly what it sounds like. Ask kids to collect scrap paper, cuttings from newspapers or magazines, clothing labels, packaging materials, pressed flowers and leaves, etc and make a masterpiece out of those.

It is a fun and engaging activity which also encourages kids to look at what they think is trash in a different way.

Flea Market by Kids

Instead of a lone kid selling lemonade in a corner, we host a small flea market every year. All the stalls are by organised by kids. They plan what they want to make and sell (no commercial items). Since our community has strict waste management guidelines, everything needs to be eco-friendly and compostable.

Last year, my son wanted to have the quintessential lemonade stand. We made two varieties, the original and a cucumber mint. This year we decided to skip the manual labour required for a food stall and have a game instead. He had gotten an archery set for his birthday last year so we used that instead. It was a low investment and high return stall.

Kids learn the basics of business, demand & supply, sales & marketing, profit & loss, and how to have fun while working.

Career Guidance Sessions

This is for the older kids. Every weekend one of the parents (or other interested adult) gives a presentation on their chosen career—the pros & cons, how to enter that field of work and what it takes to succeed.

Recycling / Donation Drive

Our community has a tie up with some trustworthy centres (like Goonj) that take donations of all kinds. However, some older kids took the initiative to have a recycling drive for e-waste as well. They raised awareness about the hazards of dumping e-waste in landfills and offered a safer alternative.

Such initiatives should be encouraged and supported so that kids grow up with a problem-solving mindset instead of being complacent.

Have you tried any community-based activities for kids? I would love to hear your experience in the comments!