For many students, Summer represents a time to relax, enjoy the weather, and spend time with friends. While these are all great things, this can often come at the expense of their academics. One good way to mitigate this in an enjoyable way is to establish a regular program of reading during the Summer.
Why is Regular Reading Beneficial?
Reading is one of the fundamental buildings blocks that students use to learn. This is most apparent in Literature/English classes, but reading skills are transferrable to Social Studies, Science, Arts + Humanities, and even Mathematics. As such, encouraging the growth of your child’s reading abilities is an extremely important step in his/her academic growth. For a more in-depth look at the importance of reading by ourself, you can check out an earlier blog post.
Why Should Students Read During the Summer Break?
As many students spend the Summer holidays away from school, this break often results in learning loss of up to 3 months of learning. To help mitigate this, establishing a regular program of daily reading is very important. Regular reading will help keep your child’s skills fresh and his/her mind active. As well, reading in general will help to provoke curiosity and an expanded vocabulary.
What Should My Child Read?
For some students, reading in school can be a boring, frustrating, or difficult task. This can be a result of poor reading skills, but sometimes it is simply due to a lack of interest in the material being read. Over the Summer, finding books, magazines, etc that your child is interested in is the most important part of any reading program. So long as they are appropriate for your child’s reading level, the exact text is not nearly as important as they fact that they are reading. If your child is very young or struggles to read, spending time reading to him/her is also valuable.
What Should a Summer Reading Program Look Like?
As with anything, a Summer reading program should be characterized by balance. Many students will be overwhelmed by 8 hours of reading each day, but 5 minutes is also not enough. Spending 20-60 minutes each day having your child read (or reading to him/her) when they are focused and attentive represents a good structure. Avid readers that wish to spend more time should not be discourage either.
If you have more questions about establishing a Summer reading program for your child or wish to get the help of a tutor, feel free to contact an Academic Director at +1 (877) 545-7737.
