Summer Reading Programs for Kids: Why Reading Matters
The benefits of summer reading for kids have shown high comprehension and learning retention in young minds, keeping them engaged and building background knowledge.
Whenever we hear about summer or summer holidays, all that comes to mind is the outdoors, arts & crafts, music & dance, lots of TV & Video games etc. Benefits of summer reading for kids – a summertime essential often gets lost between the other attractive summer activities.
While for your child, reading during summer might feel like extended studies with only the difference of doing it at home and not at school, the importance of summer reading should be addressed by you. Studies have shown that toddlers experience summer slide when they return to school post-summer break. Summer slide is a phenomenon where plenty of unstructured free time and a lack of educational activities can lead to learning gaps in your child once they return to school.
Reading benefits for toddlers include your child’s psychological, emotional, and cultural growth. It improves concentration, creativity, vocabulary and language. It also teaches your child to be able to spend quality time with themselves. Books are friends for a lifetime, and summer books for kids can create a habit of reading in your child that guarantees lifelong learning.
Why Should You Encourage Summer Reading Programs
- Socio-Economic Impact
- Consistent Active Learning Summer books for kids add an element of active learning during the break from school. While summertime can be all fun, relaxing and entertaining, without the aspect of dynamic education, your little one can experience a setback regarding their progress at school.
- Reading Comprehension
- Learning Retention Studies suggest that kids can lose one to three months of learning lessons during the summer holidays. The importance of summer reading includes the prevention of study loss. Also, kids with poor reading skills quickly forget what they have read. One of the reading benefits for toddlers includes improving the reading retention rate.
- Good Mental & Emotional Health
- Budget-Friendly Summers For Parents
One of the most significant benefits of summer reading for kids is the enhancement of their sense of understanding about people who are different from them. Reading helps in developing perspectives which sometimes real-life incidents and conversations don’t. 86% of educators believe kids who read more have more vital empathy than kids who don’t.
Different kids have different responses to reading comprehension. Comprehension is an essential metric to measure a kid’s learning process. The benefits of summer reading for kids include a high comprehension rate. Studies have shown that children who read a lot during summer holidays have improved their reading comprehension considerably.
Summertime also brings loneliness. Many kids miss interacting with their classmates, teachers and friends during school breaks. Over that, the busy schedule of parents often leaves them lonely and bored at home. Watching TV or playing video games become their alternates to keep themselves engaged. All this leads to prolonged sadness, frequent mood swings, crankiness, irritability, anxiety and loneliness. Reading books will keep your child engaged. It will help them to learn to enjoy their own company. The importance of summer reading involves improvement in self-efficacy, disruptive moods and formative learning experience.
Parents try to put children into camps and classes dedicated to summertime extracurricular activities to keep children engaged. Whether it’s about learning different dance forms, music lessons, art forms, physical fitness classes, personal grooming classes, sports clubs etc., all require a significant investment. Unlike these fancy classes, the benefits of summer reading for kids include a pocket-friendly summer for parents. All they have to do is get some exciting summer books for kids.
How To Keep Children Interested In Reading
- Theme Based Reading
- Introduce A Reward System
- Share Your Life Experiences
Try breaking up the summer into more minor themes. You can have weekly themes. Pick up exciting topics related to these themes. Talk to your little one about these topics to generate curiosity. And then introduce them to the books around those topics. Kids are inquisitive. To find answers to their interest, they will dive into the books you will give them to read.
If you have more than one kid at home, create a competitive environment by introducing attractive rewards. Inculcate the importance of summer reading in your kids by gifting them something when they finish reading a book. Plan a cute little gift ceremony for which you gather all family members, friends, relatives etc. Let your kids share their experiences and the benefits of summer reading for kids. It may be a book review of their favorite book as well. Congratulate them on finishing the number of summer books for kids and facilitate them with a reward. While doing this, please ensure that it’s fun for all kids. While healthy competition is good for growth, it can sometimes create inferiority in the child who doesn’t get good attention.
Talk to your kids about your life experiences. ‘It can be related to friendship, religion and mythology, travel, education, food etc., and then observe their interest. Whichever topics interest them more, motivate them to read on the same. Inspire them to create their own experiences by reading and developing their goal book by writing and decorating it with things they want to do.
Conclusion The benefits of summer reading for kids outweigh the benefits of any other summer activity. The importance of summer reading includes keeping your child in touch with themselves. Whether your child is an introvert or extrovert, there are ample reading benefits for toddlers. Having age-appropriate summer books for kids is crucial to inculcate reading habits in children. E.g., pre-readers should be given books with more pictures.
At EuroKids, we understand the benefits of summer reading for kids and ensure their exposure to age-appropriate books. We aim to provide better psychological, cognitive and emotional growth. We work towards enhancing the benefits of summer reading in kids by improving comprehension and retention.
Register your child now for summer camp with EuroKids.