Remember to Read!

Here is the promised last blog post of the school year 2020 – 2021. We hope this year was as much fun and interesting for your child(ren) as it was for us! Sophie and I loved teaching your children, and inspiring them to read. We would like to thank you for your support, and your encouragement to motivate your child(ren) to read at home as well.

As we are entering the long summer holidays, remember to join our ISGR Summer Reading Challenge 2021!

And of course, remember to read! You can find many teachers and researchers who have experienced and studied something labeled the “summer slide”, where students don’t read over the summer and their literacy skills decrease. Instead, we advocate lots of reading over the summer. You can read more about reasons why here; they even give you lists of suggestions per grade level. I especially agree with their last statement: “Don’t forget to keep reading fun. The lists are just suggestions for summer reading. Give your child the opportunity to choose books on his/her own as well. This can help keep reading interesting and inviting. Reading over the summer is a necessity, but it should also be fun!”

I found this blog post, by Oxford Learning, clear and informative. They tell you about reasons to keep reading during the summer as well as excellent ideas as to how to accomplish that. I like that these suggestions are not incentive based, and are simply fed by the rewarding joy of reading!

Your first step to a readingful summer, is the short walk to your local library! Ask the librarian about summer programmes that they run for children. My local library, for example, runs a book club during the summer months and children can fill up a “summer book bag” with library books. They can then choose a free (brand new) book to keep forever. How incredible is that?! So be sure to hop in your local library and ask about their summer reading programmes. In our previous post you can find out more about becoming a member of the public library. It’s free and easy. As a matter of fact, many students have come up to me to tell me that their parents have now created a library account for them. Hurray!

And if your child is allowed some screen time over the summer, maybe this could be a fun website to explore. A treasury of actors reading aloud classics and new picture books. Happy listening!

Rest us only to wish you a fun, restful and beautiful summer break!

Happy Summer! And of course:

Happy Reading!

Sophie & Fleur