Children and teachers work so hard throughout the school year, meeting achievement targets each term – only to find that when they start the new school year in September, much of the progress previously made has been lost. This is known as the summer slide. The consequences are cumulative and long lasting, often having a powerful influence on reading ability throughout school life and beyond. This is likely to impact more on boys than girls. Research, as part of the ‘Read On. Get On‘ campaign, shows that only 44% of 11 year old boys read outside the classroom compared to 57% of 11 year old girls. This reading behaviour is a key factor why girls are outperforming boys with reading.
A little encouragement to get boys reading this summer will go a long way…
1. Promote reading at home as an enjoyable pastime, by modelling it more yourself. Get dads, grandads and big brothers reading at home. Parents’ reading habits have a huge impact on children. If boys never see their dad reading, they are much less likely to pick up a book themselves.
2. Even if boys don’t like reading themselves, they will like listening to stories. If you are out of the habit of reading (possibly to older children), then get back into it! Bedtime is the easiest time for this, but it doesn’t have to be. Camping holidays are perfect for story telling where there is no power to charge up other gadgets.
3. Audio books are a brilliant way to keep boys’ interest in stories alive. Make the most of long car journeys and plane trips with audio books.
4. Do whatever is necessary to find something that inspires boys enough to get them reading. Talk to them about their interests and find books that they are likely to enjoy. Some boys may get hooked on certain characters in a series of fiction books, but other may want to read for a purpose and prefer non-fiction. Boys will love browsing Reading Chest’s books, choosing titles that interest them such as ‘Real Life Daredevils,’ ‘Extreme Sports,’ ‘Heroes or Villains.’ Then there’s the added excitement of waiting for their own personally addressed envelope of books to arrive in the post!
Make the most of this summer and get boys reading. More importantly – get them reading for pleasure.
Join Reading Chest now to make reading at home this summer fun for kids and easy for parents!
