Preventing the Summer Slide

The school year is a busy time and the hustle to finish things up as we near the last day of school can be exhausting. For many kids, the last thing they want to think about is cracking open a book. It’s important, though, to fight the urge to slack off during the summer months.

Do you know that young learners tend to lose more than two months of reading achievement during the summer break? Since this loss is cumulative, many children who stop reading over the summer will end up at least two grade levels behind by the sixth grade.

Preventing the summer slide is vital to your child’s growth and development. For those reasons, we’ve rounded up information you will find quite useful this summer…and won’t bore your kiddos to tears.

Reading is Fundamental

Reading is Fundamental is a fantastic resource for parents who want to avoid the Summer Slide. The website is packed with useful articles, tools, and activities designed to engage the young minds in your home. Below are some fun ideas to keep your children plugged into reading and writing.

• Search for something tiny enough to fit in your pocket and make up a story about it.
• Read a book to a younger child.
• Trade books with your best friend.
• Write a letter to your grandmother about what you did this week.
• Make a crayon rubbing of an object you find outside.
• Make a map of your yard.
• Label the patio, trees, swing set, and so on.
• Cut out words from the newspaper.
• Send someone a mysterious, but happy message.
• Find an unusual fact in today’s newspaper and share it with us at dinner.
• Make up a new fruit. Describe its flavor, texture, and appearance.
• Write the number words from one to twenty.
• Find a long word on the cereal box. Can you find smaller words inside the big word?
• What is the tiniest sound you can think of? Write a poem about it.
• Write all the words you can think of that sound like the noise they describe: crash, squeak, gurgle, etc.
• Look up the word onomatopoeia in the dictionary.

Summer Reading Programs

There are several reading activities for students this summer. Best of all, many programs are free and easy to access no matter where you are. Here are just a couple we found online.

• Book Adventure is a fun, free way to motivate your child to read! Kids in grades K-8 can search for books, read them offline, come back to quiz on what they’ve read, and earn prizes for their reading success.
• Scholastic.com wants to know if  you are up for the biggest summer reading challenge ever. Scholastic.com wants everyone do their part in becoming a reading super hero and setting a new reading world record for summer 2016. So start reading, log your minutes, and most importantly, have fun!

What are your plans this summer?

As a father of two, I know I’ve got my work cut out for me. My six year-old will start 1st grade this fall and he’s making great strides so far. He made tremendous progress in kindergarten and his daily journal was evidence that reading with him was having an impact. Now, his sister will be starting kindergarten soon and keeping it fun is key with them, so we’ll be using these resources to mix things up.

What about you? Share your ideas in the comment section below.