5 Tips to Soar All Summer!

Keep It Easy!

Keep selections of engaging books, magazines, and writing materials readily available around your home, in the car, in your bag, at the beach, etc. The key is to make it easy to choose reading and writing during free time. 

Journal or Scrapbook Together as a Family

Keep a mini-travel journal or make a scrapbook to document day trips and vacations. These can become treasured family possessions! Encourage kids to write about their trip in the genres they like best: poetry, daily diary entries, comic strips, opinion pieces, drawings with captions, postcards, travel brochures, and more!

Plan together as a family

Research vacation destinations together before and during and after trips. Reading about where you are going gives kids context that will help them look forward to, understand and enjoy what they will see when on vacation. They can also help plan fun things to do. While away, reading about local history, folklore, and special events can enrich your experience. After the trip, use the internet to learn more about the places you visited.

Set family reading dates

Read together! Set family reading dates where everyone agrees to remove other distractions and just meet somewhere to relax and read. Try fun, comfortable locations like a shady balcony or porch, under a tree, or at the park. Make it extra cozy with blankets and favorite snacks. Allow journal writing and drawing on your dates, too! Avoid over scheduling, so you have room for “free time” to read and write together.

Avoid the “required summer reading” drag

If your kids tend to avoid “required reading” from school (a very common reaction), try to get it done early in the summer, so they can spend the rest of break associating reading with fun and free choice (as it should be)! You don’t want them to avoid reading all summer because of a school assignment looming over their heads.

Turn to reading, writing, and storytelling as a way to bond as a family and spend joyful time together all summer long!