elijah reading 3

Summer is here and both you and your children are hooraying over freedom from school assignments. You’ll go camping and swimming. You’ll laze around the house in your jammies. You’ll take a road trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

You won’t worry about school again until September.

Ummmmm. What about summer reading? You know your kids will forget much of what they’ve learned if they don’t keep reading over the summer… don’t you?

You do know, but you just need a break. Is that too much to ask? After all you’ve been overseeing homework for nine months and everyone just needs to step back from school work and have some fun.

I agree. But, what I mentioned up above is sooo true. If your young readers don’t practice over the summer, they’ll backslide. Especially those children who struggle with reading and writing skills. Then in the fall rather than making headway, they’ll once again be the kids who can’t read as well as they’d like.

Rats.

But here’s the thing. It isn’t that hard. A literate home is merely a home where people read. They do it for fun, not to torture themselves. Try these simple ways to keep reading a part of summer fun. Make it painless for those who struggle. Have a ton of fun this summer, but include time for reading:

  1. Make a weekly trip to the library. Attend a story time or just check out good books. An ice cream cone on the way home might not be a bad idea.
  2. Alternate independent reading days with family read alouds. Choose a book everyone can enjoy and read it together after dinner or before those late summer bedtimes. Make it fun. Hearing a great story is a strong motivation to read independently.
  3. Have older children read to the younger ones. Have younger children read to pets. Take a book along when you visit Grandma and read to her. Record your child reading and play the recording back for other members of the family.
  4. Take an excellent book along on vacation. Read it in the car and at nights before tucking the kids in bed. Make sure it’s a page turner so they’ll look forward to the next installment.
  5. Have a “read-in” where the whole family gets out their books and reads. Ask each other questions about the books read. (Who are the characters? What was the best part? What’s happening right now?”)
  6. Organize a summer book club for the neighbor kids. Read a good book together and do crafts and other projects related to the theme. Read a chapter a week and take a field trip at the end of the book. Celebrate a great read together.

DON’T make summer reading a laborious chore with the timer ticking away. Your child will just count the minutes and most likely think of reading as a waste of good summer sun.

And most important of all—be sure your kids see you reading for pleasure.

Happy Summer Reading!