Suggested Summer Reading

Keeping Summer Reading, fresh, fun, priority one
from Teachmama.com

So, I read this post at No Filter Mom about suggested Summer reading for her (sit down for this one please) 5 year old. Here's the post if you are interested in reading it.

Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole idea for summer reading for little people. I know that I am the kind of parent who has already looked at and bought or asked for books on the list for toddlers and I like the idea of suggested reading at that age because I'm sure there are parents who wouldn't do it otherwise.

But, what about those of us that would? I know that there are people out there who would read to their kidlets all the books on the list, spending the summer checking out the whole list. I know that's what I'd do and I'd make it fun and hopefully help instill a love of reading in my tiny person.

I'm all for summer reading, really. Every year I am amazed that there are students in Honors Sophomore English who complain about the summer reading/don't do the summer reading/don't read at all. It is over-whelming to me that students will perfect their sports skills by doing two-a-days in the hot summer heat, they will hewn their band perfection by practicing their instruments and marching, but many of them will not read to advance their comprehension skills. Not only can I not get these kiddos to read Of Mice and Men and Anthem in the summer (two books totaling about 300 pages), but they don't read for pleasure...no Romance novels, no silly YA adult fiction, no mysteries, they don't talk about books, they don't write about books...it makes me sad.

What does reading do for you? Well...

1] it increases your vocabulary
2] it increases your writing and speaking skills
3] it gets you to think
4] it increases your cultural literacy and background knowledge
5] it makes learning fun!

And, if you practice it everyday, think about how smart you'd be!

But, I suppose I'm preaching to the choir on this one...

"A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others."

~ Abraham Lincoln

The students that succeed are those that are AVID readers. I just hope all this summer reading at the elementary level doesn't turn them off to reading the way the implementation of the Advance-Reading (AR) program has.

What do you think about summer reading programs?