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The Reading Coach

Summertime Reading

We all know that summer reading is good for kids. Without it, experts say, reading skills can decrease. Encourage parents to include reading in their summer plans, and help them keep their kids reading by making summertime reading different than “that stuff I do at school."

Share with parents these “outside the box" ideas:

• Fun Authors for Great Summertime Reading Jon Scieszka: “The Time Warp Trio” series, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (elementary) Tedd Arnold: Giant Children, and No Jumping on the Bed (author) and Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? (co-author) (elementary) Bruce Colville: My Teacher is an Alien, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, and “The Unicorn Chronicles” series (upper elementary and middle school) Jaime Adoff: The Song Shoots Out of My Mouth: A Celebration of Music and Names Will Never Hurt Me (Teens) (Note: Grade levels are only a guide -- many of these books are great for any age.)

  Read about your vacation destination before you go.
• Read about something you want to do together (hiking, planting a garden, working on motorcycles).
• Turn off the TV and substitute one half hour of reading or a visit to the library.
• Save your pennies (everyone empties change into a jar). When you save enough, stop by a local bookstore for a treat.
• Put a reading reminder on your “adult" calendar (but don’t let the kids know!)
• Read a book about local history and go to a museum.
• Read a book that’s now a movie, and then take them to see the movie!
• Host a potluck mid-summer party at your house or a local park. Pull out a book or two to read in the shade after dinner, or tell stories around the campfire.
• Use reading as a way to reconnect with your kids. Talking about a story is still one of the best ways to open doors that might be closed when schedules are hectic.

Teachers try this: Let kids choose two books to read with their families during the summer. At open house, when families visit the school, invite parents to take the Accelerated Reader or Scholastic Reading Counts test with their kids watching!

Virginia Meldrum, director of The Owl’s Tree “Authors in the Schools" program, says keep it simple. Help parents tap into the joy, discovery and exploration of reading. “The worst we can do is force children to read something they ‘should’." Her advice: Help parents see how to make reading fun.

About the Author Known as the "Literacy Ambassador," Cathy Puett Miller has a library science degree from Florida State University. Her writing appears in such print publications as Atlanta Our Kids, Omaha Family, and Georgia Journal of Reading, and online at Literacy Connections, Parenthood.com,Education World, Family Network, and BabyZone. Be sure to visit Cathy's Web site at www.readingisforeveryone.org. Click to read a complete bio.

Article by Cathy Puett Miller
Education World®
Copyright © 2009 Education World

05/11/2007
Updated 05/13/2009