Have you ever heard of the summer slide? Educators refer to the loss of knowledge and skills when school is out as the summer slide. Research has shown that children spend less time reading when school is out, which can lead to regressions in many areas. Consequently, teachers spend the beginning of the new school year refreshing students, as opposed to introducing new material and concepts.
Rest assured parents, there is something you can do to prevent the dreaded loss of skills. Booksource found that reading just 4-6 books during the summer months helped to prevent, and in some cases even reverse, the summer slide.
No matter the age, we have come up with a fun way to help you keep your little ones reading all summer long. We’ve created a Slide Into Summer Book Challenge for the month of July. The goal is to have your child read a book (or have one read to them) based on each day’s theme. This challenge is completely free, but may require a trip or two to your local library, which is never a bad idea in our opinion. If you’re participating in the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge, this is a great way to help keep your goal of daily reading on track.
We’d love for you to share pictures daily of each book you chose on social media using the tag #slideintosummerbookchallenge. There may even be a giveaway at the end for those who join us on the journey!
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