A Note to Parents...

It's that time of year again...time for the beach, pool and relaxing with friends.  To catch fireflies, eat popsicles and stay up late.  To ride bikes, go to camp and play with friends.

This often translates to less time reading and writing, which often results in "Summer Slide," when children lose approximately two months of learning gains over the summer.

How can we prevent that from happening?

The first step is to keep students reading daily over the summer.  To make reading and writing meaningful and authentic.  To create family routines around literacy during the summer, like visiting the library regularly, making grocery lists together, keeping a vacation journal.

Our "communal" Grocery List - note that there actually are a few healthy items!

As a parent, it's sometimes hard to know how much to push and when to back off.  We don't want to micromanage our children - after all they are kids and it is summer! - yet we also want to keep them practicing the precious skills and strategies that they learned during the school year.

A Homemade Birthday Card for a Neighbor

The purpose of this blog is to provide ideas to keep literacy at the forefront in your home during the summer.  To infuse it into your summer plans in meaningful and authentic ways.  To hopefully make it enjoyable for your child, instead of like a chore or extra homework.  To foster a love of reading and writing, even when it's not "required" as part of school.

 
My commitment to you is to share at least one tip or idea each week that you can try at home to keep your child engaged in reading and writing over the summer.  Feel free to modify and/or adjust to suit your child and your own interests/style.  And if you do create a new idea, please share your comments.

Let's work together to keep reading and writing alive this summer, even if it's just a few minutes of reading books together under a beach umbrella, with sand between the pages and sunscreen.  Or, scanning the signs together on a road trip, asking your child to find words and/or letters that he/she knows.

Every little bit counts, no matter how big or small.