Make the most of summer! Time for Swimming, Picnics, and Reading

It’s hot outside, but it’s never too hot to enjoy a good book! Summer reading is more important than ever, especially with so many students missing classroom time this year.

Continuing to enjoy books during the summer break promotes reading skills, expands vocabulary, builds empathy, opens the mind to new experiences, and helps prepare kids for the next school year.

If you are looking for a way to keep young kids occupied and intellectually engaged, check out our recommendations for reading resources:

• National Summer Learning Association is a nonprofit that offers resources, information, and summer learning programs to help close the achievement gap.

• Prepared Parents has information about the importance of cultivating curiosity and encouraging reading throughout the summer.

• Reading is Fundamental offers tons of free resources for summer reading, including reading lists, activity sheets, and advice for starting a book club.

• Common Lit has over 2,000 free reading passages for grades 3-12.

• Khan Academy has free reading and vocabulary resources organized by grade level.

• Reading Rockets is full of great summer reading resources for early readers.

The best resource of all: your local public library. This year, the Collaborative Summer Library Program has picked a fun theme to kick off summer reading: Tails and Tales.

Cheri Crow, the Youth Services Coordinator at Delaware County Libraries in Media, Pennsylvania, supports this theme, saying that animal books are an engaging way to foster compassion, stimulate emotional intelligence, and encourage social responsibility.

In fact, she used a number of our books for the Delaware County libraries’ summer reading events. Check out her blog post about it!

Librarians from around the country are picking high-quality books and educational resources for children of all ages to enjoy this summer, and your local library is promoting summer reading with the Tails and Tales theme, too.

Dive deeper into the theme with the Delaware County Libraries Wildlife Education page. You’ll find many different activities to help kids discover more about animals. You’ll also find some of our Activity Sheets. These sheets come from our extensive Teacher’s Guides, which include hands-on activities, discussions, worksheets, and more to accommodate all types of learning styles. Some of the Activity Sheets include:

• Who Snuggles and Who Nuzzles?

• What’s at the End of Your Arm?

• What is a Mammal?

• Animal Adventure

Summer is the time to jump into the deep end, grill your favorite meal, and enjoy setting aside time to read with the kids.

Have fun!