Keep Your Child's Reading Skills Up Over Summer Break

Your child just ended another successful year of school. Now, how do you ensure that she doesn't backslide over the summer and lose precious skills she has mastered, especially in reading? Here are some tips:

1. Visit your local public library often. Set aside a time each week to make the trip. Spend some time with your child browsing books. Select a few to take home and read. Your child will come to look forward to this special time each week.

2. Read in unusual places. Each day, find someplace new and different to read. Take turns with your child choosing the day's special reading spot. Make a game of it. Who can choose the most unusual place? Read a camping book in a tent in the backyard. Read a beach book in the kiddie pool. Hike into the woods to read a book about wildlife.

3. Start a storytime group if your child is younger or a book club if your child is older. Invite neighborhood kids or friends of your child to come over and listen to a story and participate in a fun activity. Take turns with other neighborhood parents hosting the group.

4. Don't be afraid to reread a favorite story once, twice or a dozen times! Revisiting a favorite story can build a child's reading confidence.

5. Write your own stories! Buy your child a blank journal and have her write and illustrate a make-believe story or use it to write travel reviews of places you go over the summer, book reviews of stories you've read. . . The possibilities are endless! Writing helps improve reading skills. Often the first writing a child can read is her own!

6. Arrange for your child to read to a younger child. Have her practice the book over and over again until she can read fluently and with expression. Reading to a younger child is a tremendous motivator!

7. Probably most importantly, model a love of reading yourself. Make sure your child sees you reading the newspaper, magazines, and books you've borrowed from the library. She looks up to you and will want to do as you do.