If your kids are anything like mine, they are totally motivated by coloring sheets and trackers!! Every summer, our local library does a summer reading challenge and my daughter takes VERY seriously coloring in the image each time we’ve read 20 minutes. So, I figured I’d make us our own, too!! If you want to make sure you continue your reading during the summer, download my FREEBIE – Color in your own Summer Reading Free Printable this summer!!
Why is it so important to read during the summer?
Because of what’s known as “the summer slide!” The Summer Slide is the academic loss children experience during the extended summer break from school! Without parental involvement, all the progress from the previous year can disappear. Up to three months of reading progress can be lost — and that loss has a cumulative, long-term effect.
Help a teacher out
Did you know that 6 weeks of school in the Fall is spent RE-LEARNING old material just to make up that summer slide? And, it’s not just reading books. It’s math or computational skills that are lost too!! Make sure you’re providing your children a fun way to revisit what they learned before school got out for summer. And not forget the entire school year’s progress!!
What should you read?
All genres of books will help!! Did you know, our flap books encourage more time spent on each piece of information? They slow the brain down to really process. Our sticker books are a fun way to occupy kids during travel (or at restaurants!) and yet also assist with sorting, classifying, and writing skills. Not to mention the obvious motor skills. Sticker books are sneaky learning tools! Find sticker books and other activity books here!
One ask: stop preventing your kiddo from reading graphic novels. I’ve seen them dismissed time and time again. But, ANY book that gets your child to read is a good book. It is. I promise.
3 Steps to Stop the Slide:
- Start a reading list!! Even just 6 books during the summer can prevent a struggling reader from losing their skills!
- Read something eeevery day. That’s where this printable can really come in handy!
- Keep reading aloud. Just because your child knows how to read, doesn’t mean there is no longer a benefit to reading aloud. Until age 11 or so, kids reading level is HIGHER when read aloud to.
Download my FREEBIE – Color in your own Summer Reading Free Printable this summer!!
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