Five ways to raise a reader this summer
The “summer slide” is real — but it’s also beatable. Here are five low-effort, high-joy ways to keep kids reading until fall.
Every summer, teachers brace for the “summer slide” — the reading skills that quietly slip away over the long break. Kids who don’t read over the summer can lose two to three months of progress. The good news? It’s remarkably easy to prevent, and none of it looks like homework.
Here are five low-effort, high-joy ways to keep a young reader moving forward.
Five small things that work
- Let them pick. Comics, joke books, the back of the cereal box — it all counts. Choice is what turns reading from a chore into a habit.
- Read aloud, past the age you think you should stop. Hearing a story read well builds vocabulary and patience, even for kids who can read on their own.
- Make it social. A sibling book club, a buddy who reads the same series, a bedtime chapter with a parent — readers are made in good company.
- Keep books within reach. A basket by the couch beats a shelf across the room. Proximity is destiny.
- Let them catch you reading. Kids copy what they see. Five minutes with your own book says more than any lecture about screen time.
None of this requires a curriculum or a budget. It requires a few books and an adult who treats reading like something to look forward to. If you’d like a hand, ourSummer Slide Prevention kits send books home with the kids who need them most.
