While children might be initially elated with reaching the end of the school year, if your children are like most kids, boredom quickly sets in and they are looking for something to do for part of each day. While summer is a great time to have fun and enjoy the outdoors, studies show that most students will lose some of their reading skills if they don’t keep in practice over those long summer breaks. To prevent loss of skills and fill those long, lazy days, here are some tips to keep those reading skills sharp and even build vocabulary skills in the process.
1) Find fun places such as the park, the patio or even the lake to spread out on a blanket or in a nice lounge chair and read aloud to your child. In addition to having some quality time, you can enjoy the outdoors and share the lives of special characters in your favorite books together. For younger children, this is also a good time to do rhyming books where you can enjoy the fun nature of language and sound.
2) Take your children to the library and help them select new books that appeal to them. If you are not sure what types of books your child might like, ask the children’s librarian. This person is usually very knowledgeable about what children of that age are reading and can point you to many new books that your child is likely to enjoy. Books that are in a series can be great choices since the child can develop a connection with the characters and story line in series books. S/he will look forward to finding and reading the next book in the series.
3) Take time to explore the fun websites and activities that abound on the internet. Spend time learning and reading more about your child’s favorite topics. There are some wonderful children’s websites on most topics of interest to children and your child can read and expand his or her knowledge on his favorite topics (be sure to supervise your child’s internet use).
4) Talk to your child and use “grown up” words. This is a good time to help your child learn new words by explaining new words, talking about tasks you are sharing and engaging in word play. The bigger children’s vocabulary, the more effective their reading skills can become.
5) Summer is a good time to pull out child-centered, age appropriate magazines and share them. Magazines such as Sports Illustrated for Kids, Ranger Rick, Highlights, National Geographic World and etc. can be great motivational reading material. Again, the library is a good source of these types of materials if you don’t have subscriptions to the various magazines. Finally, be a role model of reading yourself. Let your child see you reading and show that you value reading for enjoyment as well as for new knowledge.
