Get a Clue - For Parents and Caregivers

Summer shouldn't mean taking a break from learning, especially reading. Studies show that most students experience a loss of reading skills over the summer months, but children who continue to read actually gain skills. You can help your children sustain and improve their reading skills by practice reading and simply reading for enjoyment.

We encourage adults to print -out the following tips and keep them handy as reminders of how to encourage reading throughout the summer and all year long.

Why Summer Reading Is Important Tips for parents of readers Tips for parents of young children

Summer reading rules & guidelines Reading Record Summer Reading - Something for Everyone

How much should my child read? Research shows that children who are read to or read for pleasure a total of three or more hours per week perform better in school. (This averages out to about 30 minutes a day). Of course, every child reads at his or her own personal rate, so adjusting this according to a child’s ability and interest is important. Encouraging children to read for pleasure and helping them seek out the types of materials that interest them most will support good reading habits and create opportunities for parents and caregivers to share interests and ideas with children.

Tips for parents of readers

Parents should remember that children need free time in the summer to relax and enjoy the pleasures of childhood. So summer reading should be fun. The following are a few tips to make reading enjoyable for your children this summer:

• Read aloud together with your child every day. Make it fun by reading outdoors, at the beach or park. Let your child read to you. For younger children talk about pictures and sounds.
  
  
• Set a good example! Read yourself. Modeling reading behaviors for your child helps them discover the value of reading. Create a reading time, when every member of the house sits down and reads for pleasure.
  
  
• Read the same book your child is reading and discuss it. This is the way to develop good thinking, reasoning and insight sharing skills.
  
  
• Let kids choose what they want to read. It will encourage the reading habit.
  
  
• Make trips a way to encourage reading. Read aloud traffic signs, billboards and notices or show your children how to read a map and let them be the navigator.
  
  
• Buy books on tape, especially for a child with a learning disability. Listen to them in the car, or turn off the TV and have the family listen to them together.
  
  
• Subscribe, in your child's name, to children’s magazines (Sports Illustrated for Kids, Highlights for Children, National Geographic World, etc). Encourage older children to read the newspaper and current events magazines, to keep up the reading habit over the summer and develop vocabulary. Ask them what they think about what they've read, and listen to what they say.
  
  
• Encourage children to keep a summer scrapbook. Tape in souvenirs of your family's summer activities picture postcards, ticket stubs, photos. Have your children write the captions and read them aloud as you look at the book together.

Tips for parents of young children

O-6 months

• The visual memory of babies 0-6 months is about three seconds.
  Share “Peekaboo” books/games often.
  
  
• Talking to your baby as early as 0-6 months is vital because his/her brain will make important connections for language.
  Share Nursery rhyme books and songs.
  
  
• Distinguishing one language from another can be seen in babies as early as four days old, and they soon become attentive to the sounds/words that matter.
  
  
• Babies 0-6 months learn new words more quickly if parents talk and sing to them regularly.
  Sing appropriate nursery rhymes/fingerplay activities.

6-12 months

• Cognitive, motor, and language development are strengthened in babies 6-12 months when peekaboo/discovery books are shared.
  
  
• Every possible sound in every language can be discerned, by infants 6-12 months. Babies have learned to screen out foreign sounds and to focus on sounds of their native language (by ten months).
  
  
• When babies gaze or look at themselves in the mirror, they develop a sense of self-awareness and start to understand that they have their own identity. Mirror play also helps with listening/language skills and hand-eye coordination.
  
  
• Introducing infants to music early on increases their potential for learning.
  Rhyming games /songs act as stimulants at this age.
  
  
• Children almost always become fluent in speech/language by age three, if they have been surrounded early on by words.
  When deprived of language experiences, children rarely master language as adults.

12-18 months

• Children 12-18 months love to make music/dance. They become more dexterous with their hand/finger and are starting to walk alone.
  Share more finger plays and encourage children to perform the actions.
  
  
• Finger plays and Action Rhymes help children 12-18 months develop coordination, and improves vocabulary development.
  Share books/songs with words that rhyme, such as "Five Little Ducks Went Out One Day".
  
  
• Children 12-18 months love to hear/make animal sounds and move/walk like them. Their imagination kicks into full gear when they pretend to be a duck, a snake, a bug, or frog, and like when you watch them waddle, slither, creep, or jump like various animals.
  Animal antic books will help children with social skills, imagination, creativity, and teach them about animal behavior. Share books that show animal babies and their mothers and sing songs with animal sounds such as “Old MacDonald.”

18-24 months

• Children 18-24 months are no longer babies; they are toddlers! They walk, run, and jump (without your help). Their vocabulary is also increasing, and they like to hear the same stories (and play the same games) over and over…again. This repetition is good, however, as it helps important skills such as concept, gross motor skills, eye-hand coordination, following directions, cause-and-effect, etc.
  Share books about colors and numbers, shapes, and playtime. Discovery books and the old classic hide-and-seek game are very important at this stage.

Sponsors

Summer Reading is brought to you by the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County with generous support from the following organizations.