Benefits of Summer Reading

“I’m bored!” How many times during the summer do you hear your kids say this? Summer reading can cure boredom and offer a host of other benefits.
Reading each day fits perfectly with Kumon’s belief that practice makes possibilities™. Kumon can help your child develop good habits and a solid foundation in reading.
Defeat the Summer Slide
The phrase “summer slide” might make you think of carefree days at the park as a child, but this “summer slide” is not so much fun. In education, summer slide refers to a student’s loss of skills and knowledge during the summer months.
Daily reading in the summer is not only a great way to prevent students from losing what they’ve already learned, but it can even help them continue to improve and start the next school year even stronger than the year before. Kumon’s Reading Program gets kids off the summer slide and on to climbing the rock wall of academic success.
Expose Students to More Perspectives
Reading exposes students to new places, new people and new ideas. Kumon Centers strive to produce independent, lifelong learners – students who are curious about the world around them. Summer reading is a great way to feed that curiosity.
Encourage Empathy
Kumon is driven by the idea of positively impacting the global community through education. One way to impact local communities and society at large is through developing a stronger sense of empathy in children. Reading can help cultivate compassion for others. By seeing a character in a book go through challenges, it can make students aware of the struggles different people might face and help them relate to others in a kinder and more authentic way.
Empathy helps make students better people and leads to more fulfilling and successful lives. In the book “UnSelfie,” author Michele Borba writes: “Empathy is also a positive predictor of children’s reading and math test scores and critical thinking skills, prepares kids for the global world, and gives them a job market boost…Harvard Business Review named it (empathy) as one of the ‘essential ingredients for leadership success and excellent performance.’”
Improve Vocabulary
A strong vocabulary is a cornerstone of academic success. Daily reading is a great way to continue to build on current knowledge. A strong vocabulary can make students more successful academically, improve test scores and make students more confident in social situations. Kumon Reading stresses the importance of daily practice, and summer reading is a great way to sustain academic momentum from the school year.
Read for Fun
One of the best things about summer reading is that students get to choose what they read. They don’t read what they have to; they get to read what they want to. Help your child think about their interests and search for books that they might enjoy. Summer reading is a great way to develop new interests, as well.
Improve Reading Fluency
Reading fluency refers to the ability to read quickly while also accurately comprehend the content. The more you read, the more fluent you can become. Kumon Reading creates a solid reading foundation, improves reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. Most of all, Kumon instills a love of reading and lifelong learning.
Set Them Up for Success
Kick off the summer by creating a space where your child can escape with a book. It doesn’t have to be fancy! You could put some pillows in the corner of their room, transform their closet into a reading castle or use some old sheets to let them build a reading fort in their bedroom. They can even find a shady spot in the yard and spread out a blanket (also known as a magical reading carpet). By making it fun, it seems less like a chore and more like a fun escape into new and exciting adventures.
Summer Reading Resources and Lists
There are many online resources and opportunities at local public libraries. School librarians are another great resource. Not sure where to find the closest local library?
Worldcat can help you locate libraries in your area, as well as search for books, movies, audiobooks and other things that libraries offer.
K-12readinglist.com offers parents many book ideas for students at every grade level.
Kumon has its own Recommended Reading List, encouraging readers at every level of the Kumon Reading Program to read books from a wide range of genres and styles. The Kumon Method can unlock your child’s potential. You can sign up for a free assessment at a center near you, here.
1 Borba, M. (2016). UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World. Touchstone.