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Keep the Words during Summer Vacation

© Sandra Linville

Taking a break from schoolbooks during the summer doesn’t mean your children need to push words into the closet until autumn. Without the pressure of deadlines, structured assignments and exams, reading and writing on a lazy summer day can be just plain fun.

If just plain fun feels too dangerous or too lazy, you can always tell yourself that you are improving your child’s writing and reading for next year’s school term. And of course you will, because the more your children read and write, the better readers and writers they will become. However, remember the fun during summer. It’s okay if they would rather read the latest Star Wars book instead of a classic or if they would rather keep a journal of their summer camp activities instead of writing an essay – it’s the writing and reading that count.

If your young children are struggling readers, you can find help at ReadingRockets.org, a web site dedicated to helping young children learn to read. It is the first element of a national multimedia project geared to provide tried-and-tested tools to help kids read at an acceptable level. It was launched by WETA TV 26, a public broadcasting station serving Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

According to Dr. G. Reid Lyon of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development about 40 percent of fourth-grade students read “below the basic level.” He also states that the Reading Rockets web site is a “great place for parents and teachers to find reliable information” about helping children read.

Some of the features of the web site are practical tips and online forums for parents, teachers, tutors and child care providers; a guide of the best children’s books with a searchable database; milestones of language development; more than 200 articles on the latest reading research and practice as well as informative interviews with nationally recognized reading experts.

The site also has a searchable state-by-state resource guide and feature articles with celebrities about how reading has affected their lives. The news section offers the latest articles from national media that keeps parents and educators informed about reading studies, updates of legislation affecting reading curriculum and what parents and community groups are doing to give their children a head start in reading.

Some of the most fun is the behind-the-scenes visits with noted children’s book authors, found in the Book Club section Your children may discover another dimension to reading by learning more about these authors. The Book Club section also provides many lists of recommended books, top ten books in categories and best-sellers.

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