When I first left my full-time job, I had big plans for our summers. My son was just finishing up PreK-4 and had until then been in daycare for every summer of his young life. My daughter was only one. I couldn't wait to have the freedom to spend the summertime with them.

Fast forward five years... we have had summers full of camps, swimming, bedroom makeovers, vacation Bible schools, slip-n-slides, sprinklers, catching fireflies, and much, much more.

As I look forward to the upcoming summer, I want to be intentional about what we do with our time this summer. I want more playtime, more family time, less busyness overall this summer.

One thing our plans include this summer is reading.

*This post is from Amy, the book contributor here at Homegrown Learners. I love Amy's idea of spreading a feast of books for her kids this summer... and I really like her idea of incorporating more audio books this summer, too!

2017 Summer Book List for Kids from Homegrown Learners

Summer Reading Plans

For Me...

And not just reading for the children, but for myself. I am so inspired by Mary. Moms: take the Time to Read.

I spend most of my personal reading time on homeschool and parenting books. But I intend to broaden my scope of reading this summer. Sometimes you just need to get lost in a book, right? Not just the children, but parents too! What better example to inspire our children to read than to see their parents enjoying a good book!

I already have Why Can't We Just Play? on Audible that I plan to listen to on our way to the beach next week. It looks like a fun read to inspire me to stick to my intentions this summer.

For the Children...

I'll pick up books to help keep their brains busy thinking and being creative (and gearing up for the next school year).

My summer reading plans include providing them with a feast of good books to choose from.

My goal is less screen time, more reading, more playing!

My son loves the You Wouldn't Want To.... series of books. You Wouldn't Want to Be An American Pioneer and You Wouldn't Want to Live in a Wild West Town! were two of his early favorites of this series. He picked up a couple of new ones at the homeschool conference last weekend that he began reading on the way home: You Wouldn't Want to Live Without the Internet and You Wouldn't Want to Live Without Bacteria. I'll try to pick up a few more of these books for him over the summer as well as plenty of other books to keep him reading.

He has read every LEGO book our local library has. Multiple times. So I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting books about Legos for him. I've added a few LEGO books to this Summer Reading Plans list.

The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Daring Book for Girls are packed with interesting facts and projects that are ideal for working on throughout the summer.

I will also be selecting readers for my daughter. She is a beginning reader, and I want to encourage her love of books. She has just finished Level One in All About Reading. I will pick up books for her that help build her confidence in reading. You can read more about Why I Love All About Reading.

We also plan to work through some of the projects in Sewing School this summer. Her biggest sewing projects so far have been sewing fabric squares together. She's only six. But she told me tonight that she wants to sew me a Wonder Woman costume. (LOL!) Who am I to discourage her from daring to dream big! :-)

Above is a picture of my son with our sweet, old dog who we had to say goodbye to today. When my son was first learning to read, he would spend time practicing reading to Patch, who was a patient and gentle listener. I'm thankful for this time they have had together. They spent hours and hours together reading.

Family Read Alouds

I also want to make plenty of time for read alouds for our family.

When our days are less structured, our family thrives on the anchors that help give our days routine. Read Alouds are an anchor to our days. With my six year old just beginning to be interested in chapter books for read-alouds, I am selecting books I think will hold her attention.

Our next family read-aloud is The Burgess Seashore Book for Children. Our family is heading to the beach soon so I thought this would be a perfect book to read. All of the Burgess Books for Children are delightful.

We will also be reading Pages of History with my ten year old son. I suspect this is one he and my husband will especially enjoy.

Audio Books

Audio books helped to draw my son into reading years ago. We began with picture books on CD where he could follow along with the narration. He progressed to audio books well beyond his reading ability.

Listening to audio books over the years has allowed by active boy to be able to read books while keeping his body and hands busy. He has at least one audio book checked out from the library all the time. He likes to get up early in the morning and listen to an audio book while he plays with Legos waiting for school to start.

My daughter is beginning to show more of an interest in audio books also. We have recently listened to The Fancy Nancy Audio Collection of short stories. Because the stories are short, they keep her attention and we can easily limit how much we listen to at a time.

I'm taking some audio books on our upcoming vacation that I hope the whole family will enjoy. I find that having audio books to listen to on long car rides helps keep the peace and helps keep the screens off. Win, win, win. :-)

An Audible subscription is also a good investment for your homeschool.

Summer Reading Programs

Do your children participate in summer reading programs?

My kids like to participate in the summer reading program at our local library. Over the years, it has been a great motivator, especially for my son. Several summers ago, when he was just beginning to read chapter books, he was inspired by the librarian when she told him he would now be able to track his progress by the number of minutes he spent reading instead of the number of (picture) books.

My kids enjoy being able to track their reading throughout the summer, get a special sticker to show their progress, and earn whatever prizes the library offers. If you have a reluctant reader, perhaps participating in a summer reading program will provide the motivation needed to keep picking up books all summer long.

My children will read for pleasure all summer long, but I will also encourage them to read a variety of books. I like for my older one to loop through a schedule of different types of books - - history, fiction, science, etc. And my daughter, well, we just need to keep encouraging her to read. To fall in love with reading.

You'll find a variety of books in our Summer Reading Plans list. As you face the upcoming summer, I encourage you to be mindful of what you want to accomplish this summer. For me, I want plenty of relaxing connection time for our family, and hours and hours of reading and playing.

I hope you find some ideas from this list to help you with your summer reading plans.

Download the Summer Printable Book List for Kids

Summer Book List for Kids from Homegrown Learners

For more inspiration to continue reading and learning all summer long, checkout All About Learning Press' reminder of How To Beat the Summer Slide - - Keep Learning All Summer Long!

What are you reading this summer?

You might also like:

25 Reasons to Homeschool

How to Use Notebooking in Your Homeschool

When our family decided to abandon the ideal of traditional school I was MOTIVATED. I knew exactly why we needed to homeschool. As time went on, however, (and the realities of homeschool sunk in) I needed to remind myself why we had chosen this path -- why we had chosen to swim upstream.

Because let's face it -- when you homeschool you are doing something different. You will find yourself swimming upstream in so many ways.

Why do you homeschool?

I posed this question to the Homegrown Learners Facebook and Instagram communities and received many insightful, heartfelt, and passionate responses.

I pray this list will encourage you - lift you up on the hard days - and serve as a reminder to you why we do what we do for our precious children.

(And at the end of the post I've included a printable list so you can put these reasons somewhere you can see them on a regular basis!)

One mom in our Facebook community put it so beautifully, and I needed to share her thoughts with you. This mom is living inside MY head and MY life - because these are my thoughts, too.

“I never would have dreamed I would homeschool my now ninth grader. It kept coming to my mind and heart for two years straight before I even considered it. I know now that God was pressing it on my heart to prepare me. My child had wonderful teachers. He was a very good, well behaved student at school, yet something was crushing his soul...I could not put my finger on it...I just felt it at a gut level. I could see his eyes turn bright as we started any holiday from school. His curiosity and love for learning flourished at home. I could see his spirit dim each time it was time to return to school. I had a epiphany as I dropped him off at school one morning. As he walked away, it was in the sad way he carried his shoulders. I decided in that moment that I had to listen to my heart. I had to get out of the panic of the all or nothing thinking. I knew we had to try. I had to ask myself; what if we try it a year, and it does not work? The world won’t stop turning. That was going on four years ago. It is the best decision I have ever made. It was a very personal decision, but has opened doors for growing our faith, growing our family ties, and opportunities for interest led learning that a public school setting could not do. It was a gut thing. For the first couple of years, I said we will see how this year goes. We are in for the long haul now. It has become a lifestyle. It suits us, and my son is thriving in every way. It is daunting sometimes, and brings me to my knees regularly. So very grateful and blessed that we gave it a try.”

Don't you love that?

Following are 25 reasons - compiled from moms all over - to homeschool.

I pray it will encourage you -- and don't forget to print your list for extra encouragement!

25 Reasons to Homeschool

1. Children are glorious square pegs that don't fit into schools' round holes.

2. Your kids are worth it!

3. Our children deserve to enjoy their childhood without any added pressure to grow up too quickly!

4. We want kids to be who they are, not who their peers tell them to be

5. Common core has no place in our children's education.

6. FREEDOM!

7. Time. Time for family. Time to enjoy learning.

8. It keeps coming to your mind and heart for years before you even consider it.

9. Children's curiosity and love for learning FLOURISH at home!

10. More time to spend with DAD.

11. It opens doors for growing our faith, growing our family ties, and opportunities for interest led learning that a public school setting cannot do.

12. To raise children with a Biblical worldview

13. So children can meet new people, travel to different places, learn at their own pace, learn to love God and others, and learn to serve.

14. Children can more easily develop their own identities.

15. NO BULLYING!

16. Children can more easily develop a love for learning.

17. It is safer for children with severe medical needs/allergies.

18. It is the parents' responsibility to train our children in the way they should go, loving and disciplining them all the way through.

19. You've been teaching them since birth. Why stop now?

20. SAFETY

21. You want MORE for them.

22. To be with your children for every daily triumph and tragedy

23. So much learning occurs through field trips and hands on learning - only achievable through homeschool!

24. To let BOYS be BOYS!

25. To have the freedom to play outside all day on the beautiful days and spend all day curled up with books on the rainy ones.

25 Reasons to Homeschool free printable from Homegrown Learners

The day will come (and it WILL come, believe me) that you will be discouraged on your homeschool journey. You may consider sending your child to school. You may question the value of all of your sacrifice and swimming upstream.

Please print this list to encourage you. Keep it in your school area, in your homeschool planner, or somewhere you can see it DAILY.

We often need reminders about WHY homeschooling is the right thing to do.