The importance of summer reading… and why reading is an important daily habit all year long.

The most important thing your child can do this summer is read every day for at least 20 minutes, thirty minutes for children ages ten and up. Why is summer reading so critical? Because it helps students to retain important knowledge and skills that were taught and mastered in the previous school year. When a child doesn’t read during the summer, they are more at risk to fall behind academically and have to spend the first few weeks of school “playing catch-up”. Reading enhances many important critical thinking skills in readers of all ages. Consider it a mental workout, similar to jogging a few miles around the track a few times a week to prepare for a 5K. If you don’t exercise, you lose muscle. If you don’t read, you lose literacy skills. When you work those important “mental” muscles, they get stronger. When children read, they are making predictions, asking questions, visualizing, drawing conclusions, synthesizing and summarizing as they go. This is the best work-out they give themselves each day. As teachers we spend a lot of time teaching our students what they should be doing when they read, but unless they actually get true organic opportunities to practice, these skills won’t be as strong as they could be. By reading books that interest them on their independent reading level, these strategies are used and strengthened simultaneously. It sounds so simple and honestly, it is. If you want your child to be a better reader, the key is, they must read.

Have your beautiful brown girl take the Summer Reading Challenge and read, read, read! Here is a free printable reading log for you to keep track of all of the books read in July! Click on the image to download and print.

Bright Summer Reading Log

If you are looking for a sweet summer book, reminiscent of classic summer fun, check out one of my favorite books (and not just because I wrote it :). Summer in the City, published in 2013, was my first book. I wrote it for a few reasons. Primarily because one of my ambitions was to be a children’s book author. Also because, as a teacher in the School District of Philadelphia, I wanted to write a book that my students could see themselves in. I wanted them to read a book that celebrated everything that was familiar and fun to them while also capturing city life. What makes this book special is that it can be celebrated across generations and is relatable to both adults and children.