How to Motivate Your Children to Read Over the Summer

Making reading an enjoyable, everyday activity is a fantastic way to keep learning active throughout the entire summer. Even though some children don’t need incentive to read regularly, for others reading isn’t always the activity they navigate towards. Not only are reading and comprehension skills the foundation of success in many subjects, if neglected during the summer, it’s easy for kids to lose important skills they’ve already gained. Here’s some ways you can motivate your children to read over the summer holidays.

Find A Genre Your Child Enjoys

A great place to start when it comes to motivating your children to read more during the summer is to help them find a genre or topic they actually enjoy. This will make reading a lot more fun and feel less like a chore. Start by visiting your local library or book shop and let your child browse and explore. Not only will there be a huge variety of books for them to look at, there will also be many different options for them to consider such as auto-biographies, non- fiction, fiction, magazines or comics. You can even help your child find books that relate to an interest they already have, whether it’s sports, animals, nature or adventure. There’s no such thing as bad reading, so let them choose their favourites – it may even help convert the most unenthusiastic readers.

Create A Good Reading Spot

Sometimes where a child reads makes a huge difference when it comes to them actually wanting to read. Try finding or creating a new little reading nook in your home – whether that’s a cosy spot in their bedroom, a nice spot near a window, in a giant cardboard box or in a tent outside. Getting creative and finding a unique reading area will certainly help when it comes to motivating them to spend more time reading.

Use Summer Reading Incentives

Using reading incentives is a fantastic way to encourage regular reading throughout the summer break. Not only is having a challenge motivational, it’s also fun too! Here’s a few different incentives your child can get involved in.

  • Summer Reading Challenge

Why not get involved in our fantastic Summer Reading Challenge? We provide a challenge reading list, worksheets for each book, and it’s an easy way to ensure reading and writing skills are always improving throughout the long summer break.

  • Summer Reading Bingo

Make reading fun by printing out or creating your own summer reading bingo. This great initiative encourages kids to engage with reading by challenging them with different book categories and reading-related activities on a bingo board. With the aim to shout ‘Bingo!’ by the end of the summer holidays, they’ll definitely be busy reading! Here’s a few reading bingo ideas.

  • Make Your Own Reading Chart

Finally, you can make your own reading chart together, especially when your child knows what kind of books they’re interested in reading. Create a summer reading list of 5-10 books and draw out a fun, colourful chart they can use to track their progress. Having a visual tracking chart can make the reading process even more enjoyable and be an incentive to pick up a book even when they don’t feel like it. You could even have a small incentive for when they reach their goal.

Reading At The Right Level

Making sure your kids are choosing books at the right level is important if you want them to enjoy reading throughout the summer. Ideally your child should be reading at their independent level, which will help them grow in confidence every time they finish a book. Remember, books shouldn’t be too easy as they can become boring, but at the same time if they’re too challenging, reading can become off putting. Check your child’s reading level by asking teachers, or for kids age 3-7, take this quick online test with Oxford Owl.

Find A Good Series

One of the easiest ways to motivate kids to read all summer long is to help them find a book series they’ll want to keep coming back to. Having multiple books that continue a story or carry on with the same characters will keep the reading process enjoyable and we guarantee they’ll be excited to read the next one in the series. For some fantastic series for kids age 6-12, check out this Goodreads list.

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