The Benefits of Summertime Reading

by Teacher Christine

As a former classroom teacher, I cannot stress enough the importance of reading with your child over the Summer.  I have seen too many children slide backwards from their prior school-year progress due to other Summer activities taking over.  Of course, Summer is a great time to relax and enjoy time off, but reading should still be a priority. I noticed my students’ reading growth when BookPal Friends were sent home in weekend backpacks.  It gave my families fresh themed books to enjoy with their children, so everyone could learn animal facts and build important reading skills.

Some of the benefits of Summer reading are as follows:

• Summer reading helps prevent children from losing any reading growth from the previous school year.
• Summer reading helps students continue to love books and enjoying the special time reading with family members.
• Summer reading helps build connections to the real world and develops a child’s imagination.

• Summer reading improves comprehension and vocabulary development.
• Summer reading with a parent builds the parent child relationship with quality connection time.
• Summer reading keeps a child’s reading progress steady with no relapse.
• Young children who have been exposed to literacy early have a greater academic success rate.

Daily reading builds long-lasting reading habits. We are always learning, so it’s important to continue reading no matter what your age or the time of year. Help keep reading fresh with a monthly reading subscription box with fun themes and crafts!

Create a “Book Nook” with monthly changing themes and fill it with similar books.  Exposing your child to different genres with both fiction and non-fiction is optimal. This gives your child the factual information of each featured animal, while also watching the animals come to life in the paired theme books!