Dive Into a Summer of Stories: Helping Children Discover the Joy of Reading by Mrs Emanuel
Miss Cooper wrote in Spring about how confident readers become confident learners. The long summer holidays are a golden opportunity for relaxed reading, which is known to benefit wellbeing as well as learning. Here are some practical ideas and resources that may help to encourage your child to dive into a good story.
My personal top tips to foster positive reading are to read for fun and pleasure, to read together and to read often. And as far as is practical let your child choose the books! They will learn to associate reading with good times and togetherness if you share a book every day, and enjoy the illustrations, jokes and rhymes. Keep a handy book on the breakfast table – in school our children love poetry which can be read in short bursts; maybe A Whale of a Time: A Funny Poem for Every Day of the Year or A Poem for Every Question.
Read aloud, and listen to your child read too, ideally sat next to each other. Invent silly voices and actions! Have a go at drawing the characters; use @Draw With Rob, learn to draw Hilda from Hilda and the Trolls, very popular in the library right now. Share your favourite passage, phrases or plot twist. Listen to their thoughts and understanding of the stories too. What issues did it raise? What surprised them?
Children who observe their adults reading attach importance to it and will model them. Tell them what you are reading, and why, and ideally, read your books together at the same time. Be interested in what your child would like to read, even if they have read it many times before. Consider subscribing to a brilliant magazine like The Phoenix – comics, drawing guides and more for 7 to 14 years, and home to many comic and graphic favourites. Delivered weekly, it promises to “tear them away from screens and get them reading!”.
Reading Bingo is a fantastic way to inject a sense of fun into summer reading. Books for Topics is an excellent resource – it has the best book bingo! The achievable goals to collect include making a den to read in, reading under a tree, or whilst wearing sunglasses, as well as reading a book to someone else over the phone! Print a bingo card for every family member.
To provide books for your bingo, visit a Hillingdon library to sign up for the Summer Reading Challenge with posters, goodies and a digital portal to explore. Libraries are amazing resources for all generations of the family, boasting beautiful, safe spaces (yes, with AC!) and up to 15 books can be borrowed each time. Oak Farm is the library nearest to school and could be combined with a trip to Court Park.
If you are looking to buy, try Books for Topics, Empathy Lab, Inclusive Books for Children, School Reading List. Using expert sites will guide you to well written and entertaining books from the best established and new authors. This is a golden age for children’s publishing, with so much to explore that is new!
My personal favourites for summer? For the youngest Is This A Plum?, a new interactive and very funny story, and The Ice Cream Crocodile. Year 3 Book Club has been enjoying The Boy Who Grew Dragons a story with heart – and lots of exploding dragon poo! There are now two Cruise Ship Kid books to try by Emma Swann, and I love anything colourful and bouncy by Sophy Henn like her Pizazz books or Happy Hills. Nate Lessore’s Super Power books are funny for children and grownups alike.
The next book in the Impossible Creatures is out in hardback, The NeverFear and I can’t wait. Lily Tripp: Diary of an Accidental Time Traveller is perfect for age 9 – 12, especially girls, and the next Finn’s Epic Fails is out too. For the oldest readers Wolf Siren has just scooped a double Carnegie Award and How To Steal The Future is the latest sci-fi thriller from Christopher Edge (very popular in Year 6).
So many choices! However, whatever, and wherever we read this summer, our Year 6 Leavers of the future will thank us for reading with them often and doing so with a sense of fun and adventure. Enjoy your stories!