While I feel it is important to provide our children with a change from their school environment during the summer holidays, I also like to avoid a “brain drain”. In my personal experience, a summer reading programme is the perfect answer, whether you organise it yourself or take advantage of your local library.
My son Tom and daughter Mary both enjoy combining a good children’s book or two with visits to the swimming pool or picnics with friends when they are on vacation. To me, that is a perfect balance between intellectual and physical stimulation during the holidays.
If you are looking for a book recommendation, a fellow blogger recommends Mommy Brings Home the Bacon, a story to help explain why working mums must leave home every day.
Summer Reading Syndrome: Every Mum’s Dream!
ENCOURAGING SUMMER READING
Here are a some of my best tips to encourage summer reading:
- Children should be allowed to choose their own summer books. I take Mary, who’s 8, and Tom, who’s 10, to the library in the first week of the holidays, and they make their selection. They have a very good idea of what they like!
- Make reading a family activity. Choose a book to read yourself while your children are absorbed in theirs.
- Create a specific reading time during the day, irrespective of whether your kids read later in bed. I find after lunch is a good time when we are all at home.
- Assign a special reading space for everyone at home. This improves concentration and enjoyment. Mary usually goes to the window seat in the hall, and Tom sits on the bench in our garden. I relax on the sofa.
- Choose one “family” book for the summer which you read to your children at a set time each day. This is a good way of bonding and deepening their enjoyment of reading, as well as provoking discussion.
LIBRARIES OFFER A GOOD READ
It’s a good idea to check out the summer reading activities at your local library. Last year I signed Mary and Tom up for a programme called “Destinations Around The World”. It was free and a lot of fun! There were 20 children involved, and each one had to choose a book about a particular travel spot and make a short presentation on the book in a competition at the end of the programme.
They could use the library any time to look up additional material on-line or borrow relevant DVDs. The library became a favourite haunt! A whole bunch of prizes were on offer as incentives, including free tickets to the cinema and a free travel book!
Do you have any good book recommendations for children?
Tags: children's book, library, reading, reading time, summer holidays, summer reading, summer reading programme