Host a Faith Reading Camp for children at the parish, school, or right at home. Loyola Press makes it easy by providing a camp calendar with suggestions for five days of fun.
Each day, wherever your camp is, read a children’s book together, complete activities based on the book, and pray for intentions inspired by the book’s themes. And since camp wouldn’t be complete without snacks, our calendar includes snack time suggestions inspired by the books.
How to Run a Faith Reading Camp
- Decide when to host the camp. Build anticipation by promoting the camp early and getting children excited about participating.
- Gather volunteers to help:
- Select a storyteller (reader).
- Choose an activity leader, a prayer leader, and a snack coordinator.
- Invite other adults to help as camp cheerleaders, group leaders, or space coordinators.
- Get the whole family involved if running the camp within a family setting. Older children can be excellent storytellers or activity leaders. Family members might take turns leading the daily prayer.
- Download the Faith Reading Camp calendar.
- Purchase the following books from Loyola Press or your favorite bookseller:
- Print out the activity sheets for each day (links in calendar).
- Gather any supplies needed for the activities, including scissors, pencils or pens, and crayons or markers.
- Prepare the daily snacks in advance of camp gathering time.
- Welcome children each day, and have fun!
If you are sharing the Faith Reading Camp calendar with parents, please share the link to this page rather than the direct link to the PDF.
Let us know about your experience with your Faith Reading Camp by leaving a comment below or sharing comments in our Catholic Faith Formation Facebook group.
How long should I plan each day for this?
Hi John,
About an hour each day would allow for the reading and the related activities, snacks, and prayers without any extra time built in. Depending on the size of the group and parish logistics, such as whether you’re starting with an opening prayer and announcements or if you plan to move people from room to room between activity types, you may want to add more time. If you want to have a book discussion time, that would also increase the event’s length. But everything could probably be done comfortably in a 75–90 minute period in those cases.
Let us know if you move forward with a camp. We’d love to hear how it goes!
Denise
Thank you. I just finished with VBS and I thought this might be something to do next summer in addition to VBS. It seems pretty low cost and could possibly be done for free for kids.
Do you recommend doing it for a week (5 days in a row) or maybe once every two weeks?
John, that decision is totally up to you, on how you want to schedule your faith reading camp. It was designed as a five-day event, but nothing says the days have to be all in the same week—or even in the summertime. Do what works for your parish.
Denise