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It's time for a midsummer checkup on those summer academic goals. The most important academic area to concentrate on is reading. Some statistics say the summer slide can be up to 1/3 loss of the previous school year advances if no academic work is done over these months. If the child is in the early grades, reading is more important than I can convey in this post. So much of a child's academic success hinges on reading. That includes decoding (phonics and sight words), fluency(reading well past decoding) and comprehending the content. Summer reading helps the child in decoding and fluency, especially.
If your children haven't been reading much this summer, there is still lots of time to get back on track. I just want to encourage you that most children don't need tutoring if they will do some summer work with academics. If they don't do anything during the summer, the need for tutoring will be much greater.
Here are some things to do to encourage reading everyday at your home this summer.
- Set aside a place and a time for reading.
- All a child to keep a light on later each night if he is reading a book.
- Make other preferred activities dependent on daily reading. "After reading 30 minutes, you may play a video game for 15 minutes."
- Go to the library with your children once a week. Sign up for the summer reading program.
- Create some incentives your children can earn by doing extra reading.
- Listen to your children read outloud until they reach a place you are confident in their ability.
- Ask people who work in the children's area at a local bookstore for suggestions. I did this many years ago and then bought the books recommended. My children tell me they are still some of their favorite books!
- Encourage them to read all kinds of things. Picture books, chapter books, non fiction, fiction, Internet articles, the Bible. Read on e-readers, tablets, computers, books, cereal boxes and anything else that can be read.
Take some time and schedule how you are going to orchestrate summer reading time from now until school begins again. At fall conferences, you will be glad you put effort into summer reading!
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