TL;DR: Summer reading isn’t just about preventing learning loss—it can boost your child’s confidence, help them feel more connected to others, and prepare their brain for better learning when school starts again. Whether through traditional books, storytelling, or even sharing vacation texts and photos, engaging with stories helps develop crucial social and emotional skills that contribute to academic success.
Remember sing-songing that old rhyme, “No more pencils, no more books!” on the last day of school when you were a kid? Back then, the idea of three whole months without schoolbooks may have sounded like bliss, but now, we know all about “summer reading loss.” Also called “summer learning loss,” that decline in reading skills that happens from June through September can set kids back by roughly one month of school year learning.
Of course, a summer reading plan can help your kid by offsetting that loss, but there also are plenty of other great reasons to read with your child over summer break. In Era’s podcast “Reading Begins with a ‘We,'” we look at how reading can boost your kid’s confidence, help them find their place in the world, and prep their brain for better learning once school begins again.
If your child has trouble with reading or just doesn’t really like to do it, summer can be a great time to flip that switch and try to reshape their attitude. When kids struggle, they often avoid things that are more difficult because they believe there’s no point in trying – but if they practice and get better, that mindset can shift over time. Making reading more fun may be easier over the summer than during the school year, when there’s no required reading, pressure or expectation involved.
The key is building your summer reading plan around whatever they love:
It might take a little time before your child starts reading easily or voluntarily, but try not to focus on any specific goals or benchmarks. Instead, celebrate the small victories. Whether your book-hater reads every single baseball score or your literary genius finishes their fifth book in a month, let them know you’re proud of their effort. When kids feel encouraged instead of pushed, they’re motivated to keep trying, and one win leads to another as they start to feel more confident and successful.
Every child struggles with fitting in from time to time, and school can be a lonely place if your kid has interests that are a little unusual, is part of a minority, or just has trouble making friends. The good news is that summer reading may be a way to help your child feel less alone. Books can be mirrors that reflect your child or windows that reveal different worlds, both of which can make your kid feel a little more connected.
Stories have the power to show us the beauty in ourselves and to let us see the beauty in others and their worlds. With diverse characters like Dora the Explorer and Doc McStuffins, more and more kids are seeing themselves in the stories they read – which can help them feel good who they are and empower them to find where they fit in the world. It can also put them into the shoes of others who are different – in looks, beliefs, or background – which helps to build empathy as they see (and sometimes even feel) a new perspective.
As an added bonus, that empathy may wind up bolstering your child’s social support system. While reading is often a solo activity or something you do one on one with your child, one study found that people who read fiction tend to have more social support than those who don’t. Because reading helps us see the world from perspectives that are different from our own, we can get better at imagining what someone else might be thinking.
If you’re already thinking there’s no way you’re going to get your kid to sit down with a book this summer, take heart! Research has shown that there’s also plenty of benefit to simply sharing stories. Making up those ghoulish tales around the campfire, sending a postcard about the snorkeling adventure your family took, or even sharing a text and photo of that pool party all count; the magic of story-sharing is in simply connecting with others.
That connection can increase reading comprehension and help kids grow both socially and emotionally. “We’re talking about things like recognizing and managing your own emotions, being able to resist impulses, and knowing yourself – or having self-awareness and emotional intelligence,” explains psychotherapist and author Heather Turgeon. “It also includes things like planning and thinking ahead, being able to focus on the moment, and paying attention.” Of course, those are exactly the skills that can help your child succeed at school.
If your kid has trouble with reading and has been falling behind at school, summer is a great time to help them sharpen their skills and get caught up. While options like summer school, reading tutors, or reading camps can be helpful, the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity offers these suggestions for parents:
Remember, the goal isn’t just to prevent summer reading loss – it’s to help your child discover the joy of stories and develop a lifelong love of reading.
Capture Storytime Moments with Era
Want to track your child’s summer reading journey and celebrate their progress? Era’s family journaling app makes it easy to document reading milestones, capture photos of storytime moments, and reflect on your child’s growing love of reading. Use Era’s daily prompts to record your observations about their progress, and create a beautiful timeline of their summer reading adventures that you can look back on for years to come.
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