Summer Reading

Summer Reading Ideas – Talk to your child’s teacher, the local librarian and/or the children’s expert at the local bookstore to find appropriate books for your child’s age and reading ability.  After getting a list, have your child take ownership of his or her reading by helping to pick out some of the books.  Make a plan and chart of the books to be read and the pages to be read each day.  Keep daily track and be complimentary about progress! 

Books clubs are not just for adults….Consider forming a book club with your children’s friends.  Keep track of the pages they read each day and the completed books.  They could have a party to talk about each book, make drawings of their favorite part, cook something related to the book, etc.  Meet at a different child’s house every week. 

Book swaps in your neighborhood, with your child’s sports team and/or class at school, is a great way not only to get new books, but to have your child share and be excited about books he or she has read with friends and to have friends share with your child. 

Leave time for books on new interests that might develop over the summer, from an exhibit seen while visiting a museum, or the zoo or aquarium, from a day trip or vacation, from an historical site, etc. Get a book about flowers or plants and then plant the flower or seeds to watch them grow…. If your child is excited about such a new subject, act on it sooner rather than later.  Reading is more fun when there is a particular interest in the subject, and reading begets more reading…. 

You might even find out what subjects will be covered in school next year and whether any fun books might provide some background or a head start on the year.  Remember, your child is looking forward to having fun in the summer and little pressure; make sure that reading is one of the fun things he or she does! 

Remember, not all the books have to be of a high caliber.  Magazines and even some comic books could be mixed in with the book list.  Read to your child, out of books, magazines, the newspaper….Read aloud to your child part of the book that he or she is reading….Reading is reading and getting a child interested in a lifetime of reading should be the goal.   

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