Upon finishing kindergarten a few weeks ago, my twins, aged 6, were elated to be free of their homework and centers and “power reading” groups. I do have other plans for them, however….cue evil laugh. Although I am not a parent that has paid much attention to the summer bridge sorts of activities (let them have fun!), reading is a big thing for me. And 1st grade seems to be all about reading (as far as I have heard, in any case).

I decided that I would make two things priorities for my kids this summer–besides having fun and eating ice cream every day (yes, it is a summer rule in our family to eat ice cream every day, sue me). One of my priorities is to focus on their manners. But I can’t make myself be stern about it, so we are implementing Super Fancy, Super Polite Sunday Diners to make it fun and to school them in some crazy impressive manners.

My other priority is to focus on their reading. We are frequenting the library and, of course, reading every day. But I NEED it to be fun.

When my friend Samantha let me know about a summer reading program at Hicklebee’s Children’s Books, an independent bookstore near where we live, in downtown Willow Glen in San Jose, California, I knew I had to sign my kids up. Hicklebee’s is a true treasure and I have heard the co-owner, Valerie Lewis, speak twice, once at my twins club and once at my preschool. Valerie worked with Nancy Regan on the Read 20 Minutes a Day program, to give you an idea of how cool she is. And to hear her read a children’s book – well, it sort of changed the way I look at kids books.

We started the program a bit late, but that’s ok. The theme is Magic and the kids were captivated when they received their magic wands (their week 1 challenge was to decorate their wands and make up some magic words).

It is nice to have a little something to tie the summer of reading together. Libraries have summer reading program too (we signed up there too!), but this program at Hicklebee’s is simply…magical.

And, abracadabra, they’ll be well prepped for their 1st grade year.

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This post was not sponsored in any way. Linsey simply loves Hicklebee’s and its programs. Hicklebee’s also has a great list of summer activities to go out and have some fun with. Linsey also blogs at Me Too You.