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Make Summer Reading a Priority
By Ryan Tracy
There is no better time to work on reading and its skills than in the summer months. While most children will “turn off” their brains in the summer, parents can ramp up the educational process in these down times. Parents can make reading fun this summer and enjoyable so that when children go back to school, they are not picking up where they left off, but actually starting up ahead. With more time on their hands, parents want to encourage reading is taking place in the summer months, but not being dogmatic about it. That’s why it is important for children to be reading what they enjoy and setting goals. On top of your children reading, it’s also important for parents to ask key questions after each chapter or book is digested. Not only will this build good reading habits, it will prepare them for the fall school kickoff and getting back into the habit of reading and understanding what they have read along the way. The list below are a few tips to approaching reading this summer and can help you develop a summer plan for reading:
- Allow your child to choose books on subjects they will enjoy. Not only do kids need to be encouraged to read, in the summer months, they should have the freedom to choose the material they are reading. This will cut down on your desire for them to read and their desire to actually do it.
- Set a goal with your child on how many books they want to read this summer. Allow the goal to be reasonable with the number of days your child is out of school. A nice goal might be 2 books for every 3 weeks they are out of school.
- Reward your child for their accomplishments. While many folks don’t think rewards should be used in goal setting, it is my belief that children will eat up those books if there is a goal and reward in mind.
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Don’t forget to ask questions. It’s important that children understand what they are reading. This build’s knowledge capacity and sets the child up to understand what they are reading just as much as the words that are on the page. Some questions to consider:
- Who were the main characters?
- Where did the setting take place for those characters?
- Why did they do what they did? What caused them to make the decisions they did?
- What happened to the characters when they reacted in certain ways to situations presented to them?
Summer reading can be fun and goal oriented all at the same time. Allow your children the opportunity to read on vacation times, at the pool, and at night while waiting for dinner or going to bed. And as a parent, don’t be afraid to pick up your favorite reading pieces to allow your children to see your desire to be a reader as well. Modeling is the number one way that you can be the child’s first and most important teacher. For more info on Summer Reading and other related topics, check out http://school.familyeducation.com/summer/cognitive-processes/38453.html.
Happy reading!
Posted on June 10, 2013 by Ryan Tracy
Ryan is the Tennessee Family Engagement Manager for Stand for Children, a grassroots national advocacy organization. He designs and implements family engagement programs and is currently a leader in the organization's 10-week Stand UP (University for Parents) which focuses on curriculum of the home and school. Follow Ryan on Twitter.
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