Keeping Kids Reading During Summer Vacation
Guest post by Dave Doble.
For many students, the start of summer vacation brings a whoop of excitement and sigh of relief – a break from homework, reading and study. But for parents, that two-month learning time-out causes mixed feelings. While they love seeing their kids enjoy themselves, they fear some of the previous year’s learning may be forgotten come September.
The concerns are legitimate. The University of California undertook a study on what it calls “summer reading loss” in 2006 and suggested that a voluntary summer reading program while kids are out of school holds benefits for students in mitigating this loss.
Summer Reading Program
I’m the President and co-founder of Classroom Ready Inc., a current-event education publisher in Surrey. We agree that summer reading loss can be a problem, so we are providing an online home-reading comprehension program free to parents this summer, called Classroom Ready Interactive. The summer reading program offers students two current-events based articles to read per week over two months, along with a quiz to test their understanding of the articles and an interactive game. Recent topics include the federal election and the Royal Wedding.
I’m also the father of two elementary school children, so I understands parents’ concerns. As a former teacher in Surrey, I saw first-hand the summer reading regression each September. I could easily spot those who had read in the summer and those who hadn’t, which is why my team developed Classroom Ready Interactive. Kids are so computer-literate these days, so we thought a computer-based tool would be appealing and effective.
Surrey mom Tia McNeil agrees. She says the program is doing wonders for her son Liam, aged eight. “He struggled with reading through the year so I wanted him to continue reading during the summer. This program is great because it’s computer-based so it doesn’t feel like homework to him.” She also likes the fact that the feedback is instant. “It’s all very quick, and he retains the facts.”
The program lets users hear the text being read to them if they wish. And the game at the end is an incentive for completing the summer reading program.
Classroom Ready Interactive is tailored for students between from grades four to six, and ESL students in any grade. It’s firewall protected, and all information supplied about the student is confidential.
Editor’s Note: Another great way to keep your kids reading during the summer break is to visit your public library. Libraries offer summer reading clubs, as well as free activities, author visits and storytimes for children of all ages. Your children’s librarian will be only too happy to help your kids track down books that engage them and keep them reading.
Classroom Ready Inc.
