Importance of children reading over the summer
With all this pressure on kids these days to ‘achieve’ the question is how to prevent kids learning from slipping back during the Summer Holidays.
Some children go to Summer Activity Camps while others stay home and play. Some kids travel, some visit relatives, some hang out and chill with their family and friends going swimming or to the park with Grandma. Many children spend hours playing on their devices and watching TV.
Various studies have been conducted on summer holidays and how children spend their time & some of this research has shed light on learning and how much learning is lost or gained during extended time away from school. Parents wonder & worry what summer activities give their kids an advantage or worry how to entertain them for the long time away from school.
Do expensive summer activity camps and educational led programmes really give children from wealthier families an added edge? Not necessarily.
Kids who continue to learn – READ
The short answer is that successful children read over the summer.
You may roll your eyes in horror thinking – ‘Well how do I get them to do THAT?’ Well, the first place to start is by your kids seeing you read – and not just on a tablet.
Grab a summer novel and sit down with a coffee and read.
Encourage your kids to go to a bookshop and pick some lovely colourful or interesting books.
Put aside a regular time each day to chill out with a book.
Read to your little ones.
Create downtime to relax with a book with your older kids – and try and make it the same time every day so it becomes a habit. (Some kids stay in bed later reading first thing in the morning)
Encourage them to become independent readers – from comics to David Walliams get them reading.
Quick Tips To Ensure Your Children Will Read?
- make books available
- read books aloud
- schedule daily reading time
- model reading behaviour
- set small, reasonable goals – join the Summer Reading Challenge – this year it’s called Animal Agents https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/
- go regularly to your local library
- swap books with friends
- go to charity shops