As the school year winds down and your students’ families make summer plans for vacation, camps, and other activities, remind their parents to keep reading at the forefront! Students who read over the summer are much more likely to hold the gains they’ve made during the school year and even increase their reading skills.

Here are some tips to make reading with this summer both fun and productive for students and their parents.

1. Tell parents to keep a record of what their child reads over the summer on a Summer Reading Log. Doing so is a great way to help children see their progress. The student can even bring their summer reading log in to show their new teacher in the fall!

2. Tell parents to increase the difficulty of the books selected for the child as they progress. While favorite books can be like best friends—reassuring and familiar—beginning readers need to be appropriately challenged to continually develop their skills.

3. Encourage the parent and child to create their own stories together. You can use our free Family Stories Activity to get you started.

4. Print and sign this letter and hand it to parents as it gets closer to the last day of school.

Whatever methods parents use with their kids, make sure they are encouraging reading to their kids all summer long. The rewards in the fall will be worth the effort!

Have a great summer!

Michele