Most of us probably remember a summer reading list to complete each year over the course of our K-12 careers. Some of us jumped right in; others ignored it in favor of savoring our school-free summer months. Fortunately, as a parent, you don’t have to choose between maintaining your child’s reading skills and relishing in summer fun.
Rather than turning your home into a structured classroom, activities that involve natural, fun interactions between you and your child can play into your child’s interests and imagination while supporting their literacy skills. Here are some ideas:
Early Readers
Word Art: Starfish. Earring. Football. These are all compound words made up of two smaller words. To boost vocabulary, discuss the meaning of each small word versus the meaning of the compound word. Have your reader draw the two smaller words (star, fish) before drawing a picture of the compound word (starfish). Then they can caption the picture or use the words in different sentences. Here are some other compound words to practice with: butterfly, cartwheel, pancake, firefly, flagpole, hotdog, milkshake, and pigpen.
Go Fish: Help your reader learn the irregular plural forms of nouns like person/people, foot/feet, and child/children. Make pairs of word cards together. Then, shuffle the cards and play Go Fish! Urge them to use each word in a sentence after collecting a related pair. You can even up the ante by trying this with irregular past tense verbs like run/ran.
Sound Hopscotch: For easy indoor play that still gets your kids moving, write letters or letter pairs, like ch, on sheets of paper and place them on the floor. Then have children say the sound the letter makes as they hop from one to the next. Bonus points if they think of a word that starts with the sound!
Fluent Readers
Speak Up: Fluent readers sound as if they’re having a natural conversation as they read. Help your reader build fluency by working together to select informational articles or short stories for them to read aloud. Have them practice reading clearly and with expression. Then, encourage them to record themselves to create audiobooks for friends and family.
Map It: Travel to incredible places even when you can’t leave home! Have your reader create a map of a fictional setting from a favorite book. Encourage them to include details from the story and have fun talking about different parts of the map. You can even challenge your child to create a map for a setting from their imagination and have them write a story to go with it!
For many parents, summer is about time together, and family participation in children’s literacy journey is both valuable and necessary to increase their literacy experiences. Try these creative, fun ideas from Lexia to weave reading, literacy, and learning into the lazy days of summer. Lexia works with local Arizona schools to provide literacy instruction and support to students and teachers. Visit Lexia’s Summer Literacy Activities page for more science of reading-based activities to do with your school-age children.
Alexis Treat is a certified speech-language pathologist and currently serves as the Senior Director of Curriculum & Resources at Lexia, a leader in literacy education, delivering award-winning, research-based solutions grounded in the science of reading. Lexia helps more students unlock their potential to read, write, and speak with confidence.
