Parenting Advice for Helping Kids with Summer Reading

When the last day of school approaches, kids at all grade levels gladly turn in their books, many with the silent wish that they will not have to open another one until September rolls around. That's why many school systems and teachers insist that children accomplish the reading of a certain number of books during the summer. While parents are glad that their children have been encouraged to read by this summer reading requirement, they may be less happy when they realize that as parents, they are really the ones that have to work to make certain kids complete the required work. It can be a summer long battle, complete with tearful scenes, groundings and raised voices . Or you can give this parenting advice for helping kids with summer reading a try.

1. Huddle up. The first and most necessary piece of parenting advice for helping kids with summer reading is to hold a a short but productive pre vacation discussion between parents and children with one topic only - summer reading. Parents can get a head start on the summer reading issue by conferring with the young people before they get into summer mode. Together with your children take an honest look at the reading project and then make a very short written list of the schools requirements. Give your young person a chance to determine how and when the requirements can be met. As a parent your only real input should be the rule that whatever system is used it cannot be one where all the reading is left until the last week of summer.

With a large calendar you and your young people can make a schedule for reading accomplishments by set dates. Let young people determine how to fit reading into their busy summer schedule which may include vacations, camps, enrichment programs, swim lessons or even all star baseball. Allowing your young person to take part in the planning gives him or her ownership of their reading project and removes you from the task of daily nagging.

2.A visit to the library. Before summer can take off, the best parenting advice for helping kids with summer reading is to take a family trip to the library. The parent can spend library time picking out their own reading,. If possible the young person should pick out the required books or books in the required categories to complete the summer reading assignment. But beyond the required reading parents should also encourage young people to pick out books for their own personal enjoyment. By choosing these additional books young people can be helped to discover that reading during the summer can really be fun. It can be something to do during days when it's too hot to play ball or too wet to hang outside with friends. Good parenting advice is to make sure that young people pick up at least one book that is not simply required reading. Otherwise children may get the wrong message that reading during the summer is just some kind of punishment conjured up by parents and teachers.

3. Return trips to the library. Sometimes parents start off strong, they have their organization meeting with their children and go to the library and then the system falls apart. For summer reading commitments to be taken seriously by young people parents have to help them stick to their schedule. One good piece of parenting advice for helping children with summer reading is to continue to make trips to the library throughout the summer as needed and checking with young people about their agreed upon reading plan.

Even if children don't need additional books to complete their reading project parents can keep them in a positive frame of mind regarding reading by making regular trips to the library throughout the summer. You can encourage additional reading by letting young people select from a grab bag the kind of book they will choose for recreational reading. Will it be sports, travel, mystery, history.? Let your kids put categories on slips of paper, then put the papers in a bag and let them choose.

4. Your summer reading. Depending on your personal relationship with your young person, good parenting advice for helping children with summer reading can be for parents to read the same book that their child is reading. This can help to make you sympathetic to what the child is being asked to read and can lead to some good discussions about the books in question. If this seems too invasive you might try reading something else by the same author or something else about the same topic. Your efforts will certainly be supportive and will give your young person a good model for summer reading.

If reading in tandem is off putting for your child. Then just read something of your own liking. It's simply important to model good reading habits for your children. Take time to talk to your children about what you are reading and you may find that they will share a little of what they are reading with you.

5. Rewards On some level it is certainly wrong for parents to bribe young people every time they want them to perform in a certain way. On the other hand good parenting advice for helping children with summer reading is to recognize that accomplishments in reading can be something you celebrate. If you have made an agreement that certain reading will be completed by a given date, then why not make that date a day for having ice cream sundaes all around for a job well done, if in fact the job has been well done. Better yet, why not take the young person to a book store and let them pick a book of their own choosing as an impetus to keep up the good work .

Only you as the parent can decide how best to reward your child not only for completing the reading but for making good on their agreement. The important thing is to show the child how pleased you are with the efforts that have been made. Parents need only let the reward suit the child.

Of course not every child is going to make good on their agreement. If your child has not finished the required reading according to schedule then it is time right away to put other things on hold until the required portion of the assigned reading has been completed. The child should be encouraged to see that this is your way of helping him or her to avoid coming to the end of the summer and then being faced with an impossible amount of reading to be done.

Summer reading given by schools can be an irritant for both students and parents. But but when parents use some parenting advice for helping children with summer reading they can discover that summer reading can also be fun for both children and parents