Summer is here, which means plenty of time to spend at the pool cooling off from the heat and spending time with new friends made through the year! Don’t forget to encourage your children to keep up with their reading, so they can go into their next year of school fully prepared. In today’s blog, St. Cecelia Catholic School has compiled our reasons for supporting summer reading.

 

Preparation For The Following School Year

Consistency is a key component when fostering child development. This is true across all age groups in the field of learning. If a child spends nine months of the year working toward reading goals, then taking a three month break could hinder their progress. Choosing fun reading material over the summer is an excellent way to maintain your child’s literacy skills while also preparing them for the following school year.

 

Where’s The Proof?

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences provided a detailed report on their research study titled Summer Reading and the Ethnic Achievement Gap. This research study was carried out by researcher Jimmy Kim, and concludes that, “Regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic level, or previous achievement, children who read four or more books over the summer fare better on reading comprehension tests in the fall than their peers who read one or no books over the summer.”

 

Resources For Building Summer Literacy

The National Education Association provides some excellent summer resources for parents hoping to hone their children’s literacy skills over the summer break:

 

• AdLit.org is a multimedia information resource for parents and educators that work with adolescents struggling with their literacy skills.
• ReadWriteThink targets both literacy and language art skills. They provide top-quality best practices and resources for building literacy skills.
• Colorín Colorado is an English Language Learners (ELLs) supporting program. Resources are provided to both families and educators teaching ages PreK-12.
• Understood supports the overall learning spectrum, and provides parent resources for students ages 3-20. 

 

Read With Your Child

Children learn through experience. By reading with your child you are sending the positive message that taking time to read is important, and fun! Following through by talking about the things you read with them will also make reading part of their natural environment. Critical thinking skills are built in discussion. 

 

Creating an environment like this will not only make them more likely to positively interact with at-home reading over the summer, but they are also more likely to build a habit of reading at-home on their own. This will ultimately build and challenge their literacy skills. Instilling healthy habits is what teaches a child how to progress into living a happy and successful life. 

 

Related Post:  Ways to Make Math Fun at Home 

 

Questions on Literacy? Ask St. Cecelia Catholic School

The staff at St. Cecelia encourages you to take proactive steps to help your child practice literacy at home. If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to your child’s teacher for more tips. Contact St. Cecelia online or call (727) 461-1200 if you have any questions.