Photograph Credit: HEB.com

With the state of our economy, many retailers have scaled back their community relations.

Unfortunately, H-E-B grocery stores is limiting their summer reading club to Texas residents only.

My children participated in this program for 3 years. The prizes for reading 10 books included a tee-shirt, certificate, pencil, bookmark, and stickers.

Though we will be reading our books this summer, we will miss our free tee-shirts with Buddy the Bag on the front.

If you live in the state of Texas, then this reading program is worth your time.

Participation involves the following:

1. Print out the form,

2. Record the titles of the books read,

3. Confirm their reading with your initials, and

4. Mail the completed form to:

H•E•Buddy® 2012 Summer Reading Program

10530 Sentinel, San Antonio, TX 78217

Your form must be postmarked by October 1, 2012.

As you continue working on summer reading, enjoy the benefits of summer reading programs, like the H-E-Buddy Reading Club.

Since we have participated each year, I will send in our forms and see what happens. We are not Texas residents, but we have entered each year. I’ll let you know if we get rewarded. Happy reading!

Summer has arrived, so let the summer reading begin.

Encouraging students to read and learn during the summer months, Barnes & Noble offers a free book for completing their summer reading requirements.

With a goal of earning a new book, my son worked at reading his 8 books last year. By the time he concluded his books, the choices at our local store were low.

Though he did not receive his first or second choice, he enjoyed choosing the book alone.

If you participate, I recommend redeeming your reading log immediately upon completion for the best selection. 🙂

Photograph Credit: Barnes & Noble

To earn your free book, simply follow these three easy steps:

Step 1: Read any eight books this summer and record them in this Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Imagination’s Destination Journal. Be sure to include to whom you would recommend each book and why.

Step 2: Bring your completed journal to a Barnes & Noble store between May 22 and September 4, 2012.

Step 3: Choose your FREE reading adventure from the book list featured on the back of the journal.

Participation is for students in 1^st through 6^th grades. To participate, visit the Barnes & Noble web site, download and print the journal, and read. Happy summer reading!

As the summer winds down and the summer activities come to an end, it is time to finish up that summer reading. Some of the programs have ended, but not all of them. Though my children have earned some prizes, we are still waiting for others to arrive. Here is an update of our summer reading adventures:

Barnes and Noble

My son participated since the program is geared for children in 1^st-6^th grade. He read his 8 books and traded his reading journal for Clifford Makes the Team. Besides choosing his book, my son and daughters enjoyed playing with the Thomas & Friends trains and accessories. This reading program offered a great prize that turned into a nice morning activity in air conditioning which helped us beat the heat. 🙂

It’s not too late to earn your free book. Barnes and Noble’s Imagination’s Destination Summer Reading Program continues until September 6, 2011. You still have a little time to finish. Keep plugging away one word at a time.

 Borders

All three of my children completed the 10 books, and we filled out our Double-Dog Dare Challenge forms. However, all the Border, Border Express, and Waldenbooks stores in our area have closed, so we did not earn any prizes through this program. If you are close to one of the remaining stores that are closing, then you can still snag a free book by September 5, 2011.

Half Price Books

Another program we did not complete was the Feed your Brain Summer Reading Program. There are no Half Price Books locations in our neck of the woods. If you are close to one of these locations, then I hope you were able to finish in time. This program ended early on August 7, 2011.

TD Bank

Though we have completed our reading log, we have not yet opened our Young Saver accounts at TD Bank. Since posting of this summer reading program, TD Bank moved into our area. Yippee! I have until September 30, 2011 to open their accounts for their $10 deposits.

If you are near a TD Bank, your children or grandchildren still have until September 30, 2011 to complete their reading logs.

H-E-Buddy Summer Reading Club

Love this reading program! My kids finished their 10 books each. I filled out their forms and mailed them in. We are waiting for our prizes to arrive. In years past, we have received a t-shirt, pencil, bookmark, and certificate. I will post a summer reading finale when all the prizes have been received.

This great program is continuing. To get the prizes, you will need to have the summer reading form postmarked by October 1, 2011.

Local Library

In gathering all the information about the other programs, I forgot to encourage you to check your local library. Sorry about that! Of all the reading programs, our local library definitely had the best program. The Friends of the Library scheduled special programs throughout the summer where your reading log was your ticket to the event. As you reached milestones on your reading log, you could request your rewards.

This year, our library offered two options for summer reading:

• Option 1: Read by number of hours
• Option 2: Read by number of books

I was very thankful for the options this year with a young reader. The requirements for the program were to choose one of the options for each reader. So, I chose the hours for my son, the young reader, and the books for my girls. We all completed our goals.

The rewards were based on 3 levels. As you completed a level, you could request your reward. Since there were 3 levels and my children worked to complete all three levels, I waited until our summer reading was complete and then requested our rewards:

Level 1: 10 Hours or 40 Books
Chick-fil-A® Icedream ® coupon

Level 2: 5 More Hours (15 total) or 20 More Books (60 total)
Holographic ruler
Chick-fil-A® Kids Meal coupon

Level 3: 5 More Hours (20 total) or 20 More Books (80 total)
Reading medal
Free pass to a Recreation District park
Ticket voucher to a minor league baseball game

Our summer has been busy completing our summer reading programs. The generous rewards from these programs help this mom focus on setting a goal and reaching it. The joy my children receive when earning their rewards is worth all the time and energy spent investing in their future. Though the summer is winding down, it is not over yet. Keep using time wisely as you complete your summer reading!

Question: What was your family’s favorite summer reading program?

Photograph Credit: H-E-B Summer Reading Club

My kids have participated in this summer reading program for the last 2 years. Though the H-E-B grocery store chain operates in Texas and northern Mexico and we live in South Carolina, my children still get rewarded for reading their 10 books and submitting the book titles on the form downloaded from their web site.

This company gives out great prizes. Each year, my kids earned a tee shirt, certificate, pencil, and stickers. I order the shirts larger than needed, so my kids will be able to wear them past this season. My daughter loves her “Buddy the Bag shirts.” (The mascot for H-E-B is a paper bag named Buddy.)  Her orange shirt from 2009 is fading, but the white shirt from 2010 still looks great. I highly recommend this reading program, and my kids will probably be guessing the color of this year’s shirt. 🙂

Photograph Credit: H-E-B Summer Reading Club

Per the H-E-Buddy Summer Reading Club web site, here is how to participate:Don’t procrastinate. Print out the form. Keep track of your children’s book reading. Enjoy the delight on their faces when they receive their just reward. Happy reading!