Summer is finally here! Kids are on summer break, hopefully making great summer memories with friends and family. Did you know that while students are out of school for summer break, they can lose up to three months of progress? The good news is that parents can help children maintain and even improve their knowledge and reading skills. We hope that parents enjoy some of these suggested activities below so that students will see daily reading and learning as a fun part of their summer vacation.
Summer Reading Activities
Read 20 Minutes a Day
Reading with your child for just 20 minutes a day can help decrease the summer learning loss. Reading with children can be a combination of reading aloud or independently, having an adult read aloud, or listening to audiobooks. Finding books to enjoy together is a great way to help foster a love of reading.
Visit Your Local Library
Public libraries offer many opportunities throughout the summer to help keep children engaged in reading. Visit www.sjcpls.org to see what St. Johns County public libraries have to offer. While at your local library consider the Library Adventure Challenges below.
Library Adventure Challenge
This one is low-stress and EASY! Nine super fun challenges for finding new books at the library. You can do the challenges in any order and as often as you want over the summer. Click the link to see the Summer Library Adventure Challenges.
Family Dinner Book Club
Hold a Family Dinner Book Club each month during the summer. A new book is announced on Growing Book by Book on the first of each month. Enjoy reading the book as a family, and then try the themed menu, table decoration crafts, family service project, and conversation starters to kick off your dinner club. If you don’t like the book featured each month, you can always choose a past title from the archives. There are over 60 book choices!
Book Reward Summer Programs
Barnes and Noble has a summer reading program where kids track the number of books they read to earn a free book. Read eight books and get one free. Also, check your local store for summer storytime opportunities.
Chuck E. Cheese offers 10 free tokens to kids who read each day. Just print the reading calendar. Then, when your child has marked off all the days, take it to the restaurant to redeem.
The Scholastic Online Reading Challenge is now through August 19. Kids can track their reading minutes online and win digital rewards. In addition, this year, there will be live online author events.
Websites for Kids
Epic – A digital library of books for kids of all ages. Epic is free and allows students to have books read aloud or read independently. www.getepic.com
Starfall – Educational games for kids in grades K-3. www.starfall.com
Storyline Online- Videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. www.storylineonline.net

Dawn Sapp
Associate Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, St. Johns County School District