Laugh, Learn and Live is our mantra this summer, and we hope it will be yours, too. Why is that? Well, as the school year draws to a close for many children, many parents are thinking about, “How can I keep my child from experiencing the old ‘summer slide’?” Just keep in mind, Laugh, Learn and Live this summer. We'll show you how this approach can chase away any chance of the "summer slide" visiting your family this year---or any year!
What is "the summer slide" This term has come to be known as the loss over the summer vacation period of skills learned by children. Parents and teachers fret over this issue each and every year. In fact, come the first weeks of the new school year in the fall, most teachers will be reviewing content and skills from the previous year’s curriculum to be certain that their students will be able to learn the required material during the new school year. One way to prevent this summer phenomenon is to include the components of laughing, learning and living this summer.
One of the BEST things for parents to keep in mind in order to avoid “the summer slide” is to encourage and promote reading in (and outside of) your home. If this is the only thing you are able to provide this summer, it will be a significant step in preventing the loss of reading skills, content and background knowledge for your child. What are the best ways to do this?
One way to do this is to make books easily accessible in your home. For little ones, place baskets, small crates or little boxes of books in easy-to-reach places that will interest them. Fill the containers with Dr. Seuss books to make them LAUGH and help them remember that books can be fun. The living and bedroom areas as well as the kitchen and the car are all good places for books. Safely place a cloth bag or a knapsack on or around a car seat within reach of your toddler or pre-school child. Stock it with an assortment of books that will entertain them for hours on the family vacation. When cooking dinner, ask your older child to choose a book from the kitchen book bin, sit nearby and read aloud to you. This can be a very good thing---for both of you.
Another way to prevent the loss of reading skills over the summer is to have one day or evening a week when your family visits your local public library. You can call it “Library Day” or some other clever name. This scheduled, weekly event will send a very valuable message to your child---that YOU as an adult and parent have a need for books and reading. It will tell your child that they are very important to you. It will also give you the opportunity to observe the kinds of books your child chooses to borrow. Fiction? Non-fiction? Graphic novels?
For teen readers, who may sometimes be reluctant to pick up a book over the summer break, consider enticing them with an appetizer of short stories. This can work especially well for readers with attention deficit issues (ADHD, etc.) Novels or sizable chapter books can be daunting for a struggling reader. The short story genre can be particularly effective with ‘tweens and teens because of this. Also, many boys in these age groups are sometimes not very interested in fictional stories. If that is the case, introduce them to non-fiction articles from magazines (such as Popular Mechanics, Inventors Digest or other publications)or from the internet about a particular area of interest (robotics, current events, nanotechnology, etc.) Try these tips to entice your ‘tween or teen son to LEARN more while reading!
These are just a few ways to promote literacy and help prevent the “summer slide” in your family over the next few months. There are other ways, too. To help you further, we have gathered together what we think are good book lists for various gender and age groups. We hope you will take them along with you and your child on your next “Library Day”. Remember that good readers will experience more opportunities and LIVE more successful lives. So, LAUGH, LEARN and LIVE for success all summer long (and beyond!) by READING with your family!
Book Lists for Young Children
Little Kids’ Books
http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/books/littlekids.cfm
Book Lists for Boys
Summer Reading List for Teen Boys---by Jennifer Kendall
http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/summer-reading-list-for-teen-boys.htm
Great New Books for Boys
http://www.guysread.com/
Book Lists for Girls
Empowering Books for Girls (all grade levels included)---by Danielle Steinberg
http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/bookfinder/empowering-books-for-girls/
General Book Lists—Some Divided by Grade Levels
HAISLN Recommended Reading Lists 2013
http://childrensbooks.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=childrensbooks&cdn=parenting&tm=9&f=00&su=p284.13.342.ip_p504.6.342.ip_&tt=3&bt=4&bts=4&zu=http%3A//www.haisln.org/recommendedreadinglists.html
2013 Summer Reading List for Students Entering Grades K-6
Links to specific lists by grade level
http://childrensbooks.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=childrensbooks&cdn=parenting&tm=4&f=00&su=p284.13.342.ip_p504.6.342.ip_&tt=3&bt=4&bts=4&zu=http%3A//www.pkwy.k12.mo.us/panda/subjectlinks/elemreading.html
NEW! 2013 Summer Reading Lists
http://childrensbooks.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=childrensbooks&cdn=parenting&tm=182&f=00&su=p284.13.342.ip_p504.6.342.ip_&tt=3&bt=4&bts=4&zu=http%3A//www.bostonpublicschools.org/summer
2012 Teens’ Top 10 Books---from the American Library Association
The Top 10 Teen Books for 2013 will be decided after voting in September 2013.
http://www.ala.org/yalsa/2012-teens-top-ten
Other Reading Resources
The Reading Fanatic---Popular best-selling books (FREE) Choose from 1 MILLION FREE titles. Read anywhere, anytime (All genres) Download FREE eBooks. No registration needed.
http://www.readingfanatic.com/index.jhtml?partner=^AIC^xdm003&gclid=CM3wzrGroLcCFZFFMgodf3oA-w
For information on customizable reading tools:
www.FocusandRead.com Tools for struggling readers of all ages!
www.BrennanInnovators.com Info & support for struggling readers
314-892-3897
Image courtesy of: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/new-picture-books-april-2013-_n_2993141.html
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