Sometimes parents need reading tips too. Try these simple ideas to help your child become an interested reader.
- Be a reader yourself. When you spend time reading books or even directions for how to put together the grill this summer, you demonstrate for your child that reading is both fun and useful.
- Set aside a consistent time each day for reading. Depending on your family’s schedule, reading time might be in the morning, afternoon, or before bed. Whatever time you choose, try to remain consistent.
- Read aloud to your reader. As school-aged children become better readers, parents often stop reading aloud to them. However, by reading more difficult books aloud to your reader, you help your child learn new vocabulary words, concepts, and ways of telling stories.
- Connect book choices to summer activities. Read your child books about camping before or after a camping trip. Read about an event that happened where you live or travel to. When you read and discuss books about things your child has experienced, you help your child learn important vocabulary and to make connections to text.
- Allow your child to choose books for summer reading. Children finish books about topics that interest them, whether it is insects, dinosaurs, or a favorite sports star.
- Help your child select books at a comfortable level. Have your child raise a finger each time they struggle with a word or a word meaning. If they have raised all five fingers before the page or long paragraph is complete, the text is likely too difficult.
- Encourage your child not to limit summer reading to books. Read the sports page to check up on a favorite baseball team or read children’s magazines such as Ranger Rick or National Geographic World.
- Read a book and watch the movie together. When you finish reading and viewing, discuss the similarities and differences and talk about which version you prefer. See our blog post Don’t Judge a Book by its Movie! for some fun ideas!
- Take books along on outings. Pack books in your beach bag or picnic basket, and bring a stack on long car rides. You and your child can enjoy books together anywhere you go this summer.
- Encourage your child to write this summer, too. From writing postcards to friends and relatives to keeping a journal while on a trip, summer presents unique ways for your child to write about their own experiences. Have your child pack a disposable camera on vacations or day trips and help them create a book about his experiences.
