Monday, May 17, 2010

2010 Summer Ideas Part 1



Summer is FAST approaching!!
With four kids { 7 } and under, I have no choice but to be organized and intentional with what we will do during these upcoming weeks. I'm not going to schedule every minute of every day, but I want to avoid the "What are we gonna dooooooo today?" questions.
I want to look back on the SUMMER OF 2010 and think, "that was great!" Rather than, "Shew....glad that's OVER!"
We have several big events planned, but there are many days where we will be taking the ordinary and making it fun.
I collected some great information and ideas together for my MOPS group. I've decided to do a little series. I'd love feedback and other ideas you may have to add.

Part 1 of this series is about SUMMER READING.


With all the work that you and you child(ren) have put into the school year, whether you've home-schooled or not, whether your child has excelled in reading or not, maintaining and even improving these skills is crucial!

Listen to some of these stats:
  • The average student learns about 3,000 words per year in the early school years (8 words per day).
  • 50 percent of American adults are unable to read an eighth grade level book.
  • Students who reported having all four types of reading materials (books, magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias) in their home scored, on average, higher than those who reporter having fewer reading materials.
  • When the State of Arizona projects how many prison beds it will need, it factors in the number of kids who read well in fourth grade.
So, what are you going to do this summer to encourage good reading skills for your children? Here are some ideas:

Read EVERY DAY.

Read outloud together.
Pick some classics like Charlotte's Web, Black Beauty, Ramona the Pest, the Westing Game, Chronicles of Narnia...Pick some currents like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Magic Tree House, Marley and Me, Tale of Winn Dixie.
(try not to be interrupted during this time with the phone.)

Read separately, alone time. Even MOMMY reads her book or bible or whatever.
{HELLO!!}

Set a timer if your child loathes this idea and reward them (even the little ones who are only looking at picture books) for reading for the amount of time you have set. Make a big deal when the timer goes off.

Join the summer reading program at the library.

Give rewards, incentives, cold hard cash for reading certain books that you suggest, like biographies or books of the bible.

2 comments:

Kelli Staggs said...

Great books for kids around Silas' age called My Weird School. Histerical...seriously.

Erin said...

The local library and Barnes and Noble both offer great summer reading programs/incentives :) We pick a theme each day...one day is Cooking Day (V picks a new recipe and we make it), one day is Craft Day (we pick different mediums to work with each week), one day is Free Movies at the Mall day :)....we have to stay on a schedule around here or I go crazy!