Parent Reading Resources: Summer Reading Programs

Parents often ask what they can do to help minimize the “summer slide,” the effect of a lack of formal schooling in the summer, when students and parents tend to be more lax and children begin to lose what they learned the previous school year, that inevitably sets in every year.

The best answer to this is to encourage your children to read every day.  Set aside fifteen or twenty minutes each day for reading time.  If your children are not reading on their own yet, read to them.  If your children are of reading age, provide choices for them and encourage them to read on their own.

There are several reading programs offered this summer that may help entice children to read:

Borders and Barnes and Noble both offer a reading incentive that provides a free book at the end. Borders program is called “Double Dog Dare” and they are asking kids 12 and under to read 10 books by August 26th.  Bring in the completed book list form to any Borders and receive a free book!  Download a copy of the form from the link above.

Barnes and Noble’s program is based on The 39 Clues series of books.  Children in grades 1-6 are encouraged to read 8 books this summer and list them on their Passport to Summer Reading (download it from the link above).    Children have until September 7 to complete their passport and return it to any Barnes and Noble to receive their free book.  Parents can also download fun activities for children at the Barnes and Noble link above.

Scholastic is also offering a summer reading challenge.  Children are asked to read books and log the number of minutes they read.  When kids log their reading minutes, they help their schools as they participate in the Read for the World Record Challenge! The Top 20 schools with the most reading minutes will appear in the “Scholastic Book of World Records” 2011 edition.  Children ages 7 and up are encouraged to participate.

The KidsPost is offering it’s Tenth Annual Summer Book Club for young readers.  This year’s choices include books by “blockbuster authors” such as Rick Riordan, Ann M. Martin, and John Grisham.  Most of the books are available at the library and each Wednesday, the KidsPost will review that week’s book and offer similar books that a reader may enjoy.

In addition to summer reading, consider enriching your child’s summer with cultural arts and science activities. Keeping children busy over the summer should help negate that pesky “summer slide.”

©2010 by Dawn Little for Literacy Toolbox. All Rights Reserved.  All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you

Two Literacy Events in Two Weeks: IRA and Mo Willems

I’ve been a bit out of touch for the last week or two, and for that, I apologize!  I have had a crazy couple of weeks and while I normally pre-schedule my posts, time slipped away from me and other responsibilities took over.  I hope to get back on track this week with regular postings on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  This month, I hope to provide you with resources to help engage the reluctant reader, but first, I would love to share two major literacy related events I attended in the last two weeks!

International Reading Association Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois (April 25-April 28) –

I had the pleasure and honor of presenting at the 55th annual IRA conference.  Not only is this a fantastic professional development opportunity for literacy educators, but it is so much more!  Fantastic keynotes (this year:  Queen Rania of Jordan, Former Vice-President Al Gore, and Dr. Belle Whelan), the chance to meet and mingle with your favorite authors (of both professional books as well as children’s literature) and special luncheons and evening events.  My favorite activity was to wander the exhibit hall where goodies abound!  Exhibitors provided brief demonstrations of their products and often gave away freebies.  So.  Much.  Fun.

My presentation was entitled, “Motivating Reluctant Readers to Engage with Texts Through Strategy Based Nonfiction Read-Alouds” and it was a preview of my forthcoming book, Teaching Comprehension With Nonfiction Read Alouds: 12 Lessons for Using Newspapers, Magazines, and Other Nonfiction Texts to Build Key Comprehension Skills.  If you are interested in more information about nonfiction read-alouds, please don’t hesitate to contact me at dlittle [at] linkstoliteracy [dot] com!

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical at the Kennedy Center (May 8, 2010)

If you read one of my previous posts, you know I love Mo Willems.  Months ago, I learned  Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical was coming to the Kennedy Center.  So of course, I bought tickets for opening day.  When we arrived, we were ecstatic to find out that Mo Willems would be there after the show to sign books and other items.  Woo Hoo!  My kids were so excited to meet him (as was their mother – again!) and he was so sweet to them.  He asked their names and joked around with them.  He even suggested that I record my daughter’s voice because he said it was going to change and she sounded so cute right now.  

If you aren’t familiar with Mo, I suggest checking out his website and get to know him a little better.  My kids have enjoyed every one of his books that we have read and we have read just about all of them.  If you have a reluctant reader, I suggest introducing Mo. . . I have a feeling your reader won’t be so reluctant after that.

©2010 by Dawn Little for Literacy Toolbox. All Rights Reserved.  All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.