Summer Reading - Tips 4 Parents
Summer is a time for fun and relaxation but that doesn't mean that kids should stop reading. Studies show that regular reading maintains or even improves reading skills and helps children be ready for school in the fall. The BC Summer Reading Club which takes place in public libraries throughout BC during the summer is a program designed to make regular reading fun and rewarding and it's free!
Here are some tips to help:
- Read regularly. Try for at least 10 - 15 minutes a day. Skipping a day here and there is okay. Schedule it on your calendar if it helps.
- Let your child choose their own reading materials. Any kind of reading is valuable - even magazines, comic books and some websites require reading skills. Summer is a time for fun and kids, just like adults, may want to relax by reading "easy" books or reading books that they have read before - that's okay - they will choose something more challenging when they are ready or ask your local librarian for ideas when your child is ready for the next step.
- Be a role model. Let your child see that you enjoy reading too.
- Talk and sing! Telling stories and singing are related to reading skills - tell stories, jokes, poems or sing in the evenings, at bedtime or as dinner conversation. Encourage your child to tell stories or sing to you. Share your family history by telling family stories.
- Have your child read to you. Encourage your child to read aloud or tell favourite stories to you, other family members or the family pet. Encourage older children to read aloud to younger children.
- Read to your child - at any age! Even when children can read by themselves they gain skills by hearing you read. Readers in the early grades can understand far more advanced vocabulary and more complicated stories than they are able to read - it helps their reading later if you continue to read to them.
- Read everywhere. Take reading material to the beach, on vacation, the doctor's office, in fact, anywhere you go.
- Get physical. Go for a walk and take books that help you identify rocks or birds. Follow a recipe. Your child can make notes and keep journals of their discoveries.
- Join the free Summer Reading Club at the public library. Help your child sign up and set goals for summer reading. It could be fifteen minutes a day; reading a certain number of books; or exploring books on a particular topic of interest to your child. Encourage a goal that will challenge the child but not be so ambitious that reading becomes a chore. Help them learn to use the library and enjoy it by returning regularly for new books or to attend programs or take part in activities. Invite one or two of their friends to come along.
