Feeling Empowered about Summer Reading

I spent the afternoon reading and writing with my 6 year old niece.  My sister asked me to work with her daughter as there has not been any borrow-a book or home book program during my niece’s two Kindergarten years.  My sister was concerned that without that support and on-going observation in the classroom, there may be a problem of which she was not aware.  We both felt a little guilty and silly that we hadn’t addressed this earlier.

My niece is coming along just fine but there are many things that could be happening at school and home that would assist her to be a much more confident reader and writer. 

This time spent together with my sister, chatting about books and activities for the summer, made me realize how difficult it is for parents to feel empowered about teaching their children to read and write.  I am hopeful that sharing some ideas from our discussion will help empower other parents with the task of “summer reading”! 

1. Purchase or make several “little books” that will be easy for your child to read over and over again.  These books should be one- two lines of text per page.  Each line should be a complete sentence and include several of the same (as other pages) high frequency words.  The book should have a story line (or theme).  There are some beginning reader packs from scholastic book order that will serve you very well. 

A word of caution to keep it simple.  The learning or mastery occurs when they experience the same reading vocabulary on several different pages in several different places within the sentence structure.  I recommend staying away from the strictly rhyme packs as these are not really stories but rather a collection of catchy phrases that often do not make sense.  This means that your child is not given the opportunity to access meaning to assist with problem-solving new or challenging words. They may begin to believe that reading is all about pattern and rhyme and not about making meaning out of written text.  Help them, let them and encourage them to read these stories over and over.  You want the reading vocabulary words to be automatic for them. Teach them that now that they “know” these words, they “know” them and can use them in any story!

For suggestions on how to best support the young, developing reader while reading with them see my previous article on meaning, structure and visual information.

2. Write about the stories you read.  This will automatically reinforce the learning of new vocabulary.  It doesn’t matter how you approach this task but rather just that you do it!  The learner, by the nature of the task of writing, must slow the analysis process down and more closely look at and listen to the word.  Teach your child about the reciprocity of the two systems:  what they know in reading can help them with writing and what they know in writing will help them in reading!

3. Play little games with word cards, magnetic letters, in the sand or with chalk.

Any activity that encourages confidence about what they know and how they can use it in the world of reading and writing around them.

I will end by stating, with just a little bias, that my niece is a very clever little girl and my sister is an intelligent woman and a wonderful mother.  Both are struggling about how to best tackle this task of reading and writing.  No matter what our experiences, teaching and learning to read and write is not easy! I hope that this may help some of you!  Please, enjoy the summer and the time you spend experiencing literacy with your precious children!

Britta is a Toronto mom with two sons aged 2 and 4.  She is currently on leave from the Toronto Board where she worked in Early Literacy so that she can be at home with her two boys.  She has worked in literacy education for over ten years and is keen to share some of her insights into what we can do at home to encourage our children along the path to becoming competent readers and writers.