Rachael Walker
Children's literacy consultant Rachael Walker and many of the authors, parents, and educators she’s met and worked with talk about how books have changed their lives, how to bring books to life for young readers, and how to enrich kids’ lives with good books. (Also visit Rachael at her blog, Belle of the Book.)
September 19, 2017
How was your summer?
Like most summers, it went by way too quickly for me. But there are a couple of things I think will be helpful to do to preserve this summer’s bounty of reading and learning.
Reflect
Give kids a chance to look back on summer adventures and recognize how much learning happened — even though they weren’t in school! Talk about all the things you did this summer from watching movies to going on family trips to catching fireflies. What discoveries did kids make about themselves or about the world around them? What are they still excited and curious about? Follow those interests and keep “book-ing” reading road trips during the school year.
Connect
Find ways for kids to share what they’ve learned. Sharing and communicating their experiences leads to more thinking and learning. One great way to do that is to have kids write things down. If your child did some summer writing, collect it and help your child edit and publish it for an audience of family and friends. Or have your child take a look at all the photos you took this summer and write captions to create a summer scrapbook. For those kids who took a deep dive into a special interest during the summer months, keep their passion alive by finding activities or clubs where they can connect with others who share their interests and enthusiasm.
Celebrate
Hold party to celebrate summer and all that’s been harvested from it. Make some special time for family to share favorite memories of the summer, talk about what everyone read and learned, and enjoy a meal together outside while the days are still warm.
Reading with kids will continue to spark curiosity and conversation no matter what the season. Start with a book and grow reading and learning adventures all year round.
