Reading during the summer is absolutely critical for your child for several reasons:

1. Battling the Summer Slide

The Summer Slide is the amount of knowledge that students lose during the summer because they're not receiving classroom instruction. Students, especially those in lower income families, can lose as much as 2 to 3 months of knowledge each summer! What can be done to stop this? Studies show that kids who read 20 minutes a day can stop the summer slide.

2. Building a Love of Reading

You may have heard that Nashville has a reading issue. 2/3 of our cities 3rd grade students are not reading on a 3rd grade level. But have you heard of the "Decline by Nine"? Scholastic recently released their biennial "Kids and Family Reading Report" and it showed that students between the ages of 8 and 9 children's frequency of reading books for fun drops. Only 35% of 9 year olds read 5-7 days a week compared to 57% of 8 year olds and only 28% of 9 year olds reportedly "love reading" compared to 40% of 8 year olds.

So what can we do to fix these two issues?

1. Let kids read for fun!
2. Let them read comic books. They actually do have value!
3. Let them read a few books that are easier than their usual reading level.
4. Read aloud to your kids or listen to audio books. Just because they can read on their own doesn't mean they don't benefit from hearing you read to them.
5. Read the same book and then discuss it together.
6. Show your child that you value reading by reading when they can see you. Also, talk to them about what you're reading and how you're excited to find out what's going to happen next, etc.

Great Summer Reads for 3rd-6th Graders

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