Teaching & Learning  

Some children bask in the uninterrupted reading time that the summer holidays allows, while others celebrate the end of the school year – and enforced reading requirements – with glee. However, it’s important for children to continue reading over the summer school holidays in order to maintain their literacy skills.  We believe there is nothing more important for your child’s education than for them to read. We’ve put together some ideas to help you nudge your children into action.

When children read they learn new words, they get ideas for new stories, and they are practicing the very skill that they need to learn. 

For some school holiday reading ideas.

Play Word, Board and Card games

One effective way to consolidate children’s learning is to play games. It’s reading that doesn’t feel like reading! A game of I Spy in the car helps kids practice associating letters with objects in the real world. Board games like Scrabble and card games all cultivate language and literacy skills.

Try Audiobooks and Podcasts

Using audiobooks and podcasts is an effective strategy to help children with learning difficulties to connect with words and literature. Children can engage with the material in a way that is more entertaining and less stressful for them. There are a group of children, like those with Dyslexia, who can’t actually read a book, so audiobooks, podcasts and audio formats open up reading for them when they physically can’t achieve it themselves. There are also children who find it difficult to sit still and hold a printed book. But listening to audiobooks can be done on the go, so it’s transportable.”

Audiobooks

Children can find themselves captivated by a narrated story. Music and sound effects are also part of the production and make listening to an audiobook a truly immersive experience.  Even though it’s not technically reading, audiobooks support reading and literacy skills by building vocabulary and modelling fluency.

Audiobooks are fantastic for long car rides to holiday destinations or to use when your little ones need to wind down at bedtime. Audiobooks can be accessed via a number of streaming services like Audible and Spotify, and most e-readers have audio functions. Your local library is likely to have an audio borrowing system too, so speak to your librarian.

Ms McAlister