Summer break presents kids with many valuable opportunities. Attending camp, traveling, or working on individual passion projects can all lead to significant growth in confidence, engagement with the world beyond school, and a sense of purpose. Downtime is also an important feature of summer. Rest, self-directed exploration, and even learning to manage boredom are all critical to a child’s overall cognitive and emotional development. However, there is also evidence that children lose academic progress, particularly in reading, over the summer. This is sometimes referred to as the “summer slide,” and it can lead to a 20% loss in the reading growth children achieved during the school year.

So, how can you help ensure that your child does not experience the “summer slide,” while still allowing them to benefit from the many other worthwhile aspects of their time away from the classroom? 

The key is to keep summer reading fun! During the school year, children often have limited choice in the books they read. When parents try to step into a teacher’s role by setting strict requirements for their child’s book choices or reading time during the summer, this can backfire; kids, who see summer as their break from school, will usually resist. Additionally, children often already have required summer reading assignments from their school and will likely push back against more assignments from you. The goal is to avoid creating more stress and instead to use summer as a chance to rediscover the joy of reading for pleasure! 

When children read for pleasure, they tend to read more and they are more likely to remain lifelong readers.

‍

Tips for Making Summer Reading Fun

• Focus on choice and engagement. 
  
  • Take a trip to the library or bookstore and allow your child to pick out books that truly appeal to them. Summer is a great time for graphic novels, a favorite series, or even comic books. Remember, the point is to keep summer reading fun and motivating!

• Use summer travel time for audio books. 
  
  • Subscribe to an audio book service and listen to books as a family during car rides or airplane trips. Audio books offer many of the same learning benefits as traditional reading, particularly when it comes to vocabulary development and comprehension.

• Integrate books into your travel plans.‍
  
  • Explore bookstores in new cities or put your child in charge of using travel guides to find fun activities. 

• Integrate read-aloud time into your summer routine. 
  
  • Like audio books, reading aloud to your child offers many of the same benefits as independent reading, and has the added bonus of being a great bonding experience. Take advantage of later summer bedtimes by finding a great chapter book and reading together every night.

• Model reading for pleasure. 
  
  • Take your own book with you when you travel and make sure to spend time reading. You can also make reading part of your family’s summer routine by taking a family reading break each day when everyone pauses to read their own book.

• If reading is becoming a battle, get help. 
  
  • Don’t let reading become a power struggle with your child. This can establish negative associations with reading that are difficult to untangle. If reading is becoming a battle, a skilled tutor may be able to help your child progress, while taking the stress out of reading for both of you. If you need support, don’t hesitate to reach out to Smart City Tutors. We are here for you!

‍