Reading is a positive summer activity that keeps our minds occupied with learning. Daily reading during the summer holidays helps a young learner remember the literacy skills learnt throughout the year as well as develop new literacy and critical thinking skills. 

Let's take a look at how and why we should be reading over the summer…

Reading time at The King's School

We can make reading fun by choosing books, genres, and formats we like, such as audio books, picture books, comics, graphic stories, and digital texts. Anything is fine as long as it's reading. The summer holidays are a great time for readers to build on their natural curiosity towards reading and explore new interests.

Another effective approach is to find a balance between activities that do not involve deep focusing for a long time with quiet and mindful ones such as reading. It's okay to have a day out, play on the beach or in the park and then read for half an hour before bed.

Reading book series is also a great way to sustain the habit of reading. Such series as The Chronicles of Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time, The Borrowers, and How to Train Your Dragon have been enchanting young readers for generations. Younger readers will enjoy series written by Benji Davis, David Shannon, Leo Lionni, Julia Donaldson, and Mac Barnett.

If you don't mind a challenge, take on such true summer classics as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Heidi, or Anne of Green Gables.

All of these stories have been made into films, so you always have the option of extending what you've read into a family movie night on a warm summer evening.