On the last day of school my daughter brought home papers for her summer reading along with a packet to complete during the summer. To be honest I was so excited to see this because this is not the norm. It has been my experience that many of the public schools in my area do not require summer reading and I think that is upsetting. Summer learning loss, or what some researchers refer to as “summer slide” will cause the average student to lose up to one month of instruction, with disadvantaged students being disproportionately affected (Cooper, 1996). I am not saying our kids should be chained to desks and should work all summer long. Our kids should be taught that learning can be fun and encouraged by parents and caregivers.
When I told Mackenzie she had work to do over the summer, she was excited and desperate for me to pick up the books that were assigned to her. When we went to Barnes and Noble to pick out Mackenzie’s summer reading books, the lady who helped us told us about a summer reading program that Barnes and Noble offers kids in grades 1-6. In the booklet, the kids write down 8 different titles and authors that they read during the summer and include a little bit about your favorite part of the book. You can hand this journal in prior to Sept 5th and are eligible to receive a free book from the 8 titles listed for the various grade levels. I think this is an amazing program and something that I had no idea about until I spoke with the sales associate at Barnes and Noble. I am not sure if this is a nation-wide program – but it doesn’t hurt to check it out. A free book is always awesome in my opinion (I wish they had that for me lol)! It encourages and rewards kids to read during the summer. I know that not everyone grows up in households where reading and learning is encouraged. I work with disadvantaged children every day and I see the struggles some children go through coming from this kind of background. I feel that it is important to have programs available to children during these summer months to help them continue to learn and have fun to help prevent summer slide. Major props to Barnes & Noble for offering this program. The B & N summer reading journal is pictured below:
After my trip to B & N I stopped at Target and noticed in the dollar spot that there were workbooks for different subjects and different grade levels – and they were all a dollar! To me, that was a steal so I picked up several different books for the First grade level as well as Pre-K level for the girls to work on during the summer months. As soon as we got home, Mackenzie already opened up the book about the United States, informing me that the sperm whale was the state animal of Connecticut. It amazed me and was a proud mom moment. Here are some pictures of the workbooks I purchased: including a workbook on the U.S., Addition, Dinosaurs, Phonics and 2 practice card packets of Money and Subtraction – I paid a grand total of $7 (I bought Kylie a Pre-k workbook not pictured). The 2 books on the bottom were bought from Barnes and Noble (There Was An Old Lady That Swallowed A Fly and Is Your Mama A Llama?) at $6.99 each and are the books identified as summer reading books for Mackenzie’s school.
Below is a picture of the Kids Club Membership through Barnes and Noble. The Kids Club Membership is free and through this you are sent coupons for books and toys (they just sent me a 15% off coupon to my email for signing up!), free gifts for your children’s birthdays, it keeps track of all of the books you buy for your kids, and you are able to earn loyalty rewards throughout the year when you buy kids’ stuff for your children. To me, it’s a win-win!
So big shout out to Barnes and Noble for offering this program. I would love to know – what kinds of educational things do you do with your children during the summer months?
**This blog post was not sponsored or in anyway compensated by Barnes & Noble.
Bibliography:
Cooper, H., Nye B., Linsey J., et al. (1996). “The Effects of Summer Vacation on Achievement Test Scores: A Narrative and Meta-Analytic Review [ERIC].” Review of Educational Research, no. 66, 227-268.
