While kids and parents are looking forward to the end of school and the beginning of summer, most parents want their kids to continue to learn during the break. An excellent way to do this is to encourage your child to read.
How to keep summer reading going is another story, no pun intended. However, with a little creativity, summer reading can be fun and beneficial.
Put a Limit on Electronics
It’s essential to keep summer reading going as it keeps your child’s mind creative, focused, and sharp. The best way to accomplish this is to keep electronics out of the way.
Put a time limit on computer, television, and cell phone time. Have your children read for fifteen minutes each day or night.
Make a Game Out of Reading
Hold a summer reading contest with your children. Offer tokens, and for each one they earn, they can claim a prize. For example, offer a token for every three chapters read and for every token they can redeem a small prize depending on their age, such as bubbles or sidewalk chalk. For a big prize such as finishing a whole book, a trip to the ice cream shop is in order.
Related: Read to Success: Tips for Improving Reading in Children and Teens
Be a Role Model
If your children see you snuggled up on the couch with a good book rather than plugging into the television, they will be more inclined to grab a blanket and read along with you. If they see you with a morning newspaper as opposed to reading the news online, it will also leave an impression on them.
Model what a reader looks like and your children will more than likely follow.
Visit Bookstores
Bookstores are great fun nowadays for young children. More often than not, activities are going on all the time, and some of them have cafes offering yummy treats. There is never a shortage of books on any subject, as well as educational games.
Go to the Library
Most libraries have playgrounds attached to them. This is a positive way to get your child excited about reading. Treat them to a trip to the library to pick out a book followed by a romp in the playground.
Don’t forget to bring books to the beach and the park for picnics and spend some quiet time reading as well.
Make a Reading Tent
At night or on rainy days, it is a fantastic idea to build an indoor fort. Have your children gather up all the sheets and blankets they can find, get chairs out, and start making those forts.
Bring in the flashlights, and there you have it – a reading tent!
If you want to be creative, put up a tent in the backyard, bring flashlights, and tell and read scary ghost stories, too. This is an exciting and fun way to keep up with reading all summer long.
