Summer Reading Course for Young Kids!
What’s included in the Summer Reading Program?
It’s vital that you encourage your child’s reading skills over the summer holidays! It’s been proven that children’s’ reading skills can slide backwards by around 30% or more over the summer break, negating all the hard work you and your child have put in throughout the year.
With our Summer Reading Program ideas, you and your child will work through our various reading series:
- Sight Words
- Phonics Books & Videos
- Non-fiction leveled readers
- Fun stories for kids, which answer their questions about the world
- Books for first graders
- Kindergarten Books
To make sure your child is ready for the start of school, we’ve created a guided course, 7 days a week for 7 weeks. It’s easy to follow along and we give you all the resources and ideas you need to keep your child learning and loving reading!
Why should my child complete the Summer Reading Program?
Before entering first grade, kids should know their ABC’s, some CVC words, a few sight words, rhyming words and some basic phonics skills. They should be able to write both uppercase and lowercase letters, and be able to read simple books. They also need to be able to talk about the characters, settings and plot of a story.
What will my child achieve by the end of the Summer Reading Program?
By the end of our Summer Reading Program, your child will have read and watched dozens of books and videos. When your child starts first grade, they’ll be well ahead of their classmates who haven’t completed our course! This head start will help your child throughout the year, and far beyond.
They’ll be able to:
- Recognise dozens of sight words
- Decode many simple words and letter sounds with their new phonics skills
- Read, pronounce and understand simple non-fiction and fiction books
- Be able to answer basic questions about facts in non-fiction books
- Be able to answer basic questions about character, settings and plot in fiction books
- Follow along with a guided reading series
- and so much more!
Wandering what your first grader needs to know? Do you need more info about 1st grade reading comprehension? Would you like your child to get a head start before first grade?! Then take part in our Summer Reading Program today!
Start Learning:
Summer Reading Certificate
Every child who completes the Summer Reading Program will receive a free printable certificate, customised with their name.
Just email us and we’ll send one your way!
Take a look at the sample certificate >
How to Help Kids Starting School!
Getting ready for first grade, the fun and easy way…
There are many things you can do to support kids just starting school. You’ll all be more comfortable if you’re working together with your child and their teacher.
- Why not book a parent/teacher meeting before the school year starts? That way you can discuss any of your child’s special requirements and the teacher can talk through the curriculum for the first semester.
- Is your child just beginning to read books? Get some recommendations for books for early readers from your child’s teacher, or from trusted mom bloggers online!
- Help your child prepare for 1st grade by looking up some fun kindergarten reading activities.
- Reading for kindergarten kids can be a chore, so you’ll want to focus on topics your child absolutely loves to learn about! These may include dinosaurs, food, science, travel and more…
- Need some book ideas? Check out our Kindergarten Summer Reading List for kids entering 1st grade. Does your child want more of a challenge? Check out our Elementary School Reading List
- Red Cat Reading has plenty of fun and exciting grade 1 reading books as part of our popular kids reading program. Take a look here.
- Check out our Summer Reading Programs for Kids. This Summer Reading Challenge will keep your kids occupied and having fun for the whole summer break! This is one of the most fun Summer Reading Programs with exciting kindergarten and 1st grade reading books.
- Red Cat Reading has one of the best kindergarten reading programs, involving sight words, cvc words, dolce words, phonics, simple storybooks and more! Take a look here.
- Does your child need to revisit the ABC’s? Take a look at our ABC phonics ideas here.
- School readiness is so important, not just before 1st Grade, but throughout your child’s life! Read more about school readiness here.
- You want your child to learn to read books, right? If they start small, with 1-3 word sentences they’ll be able to gradually gain confidence with reading. Soon they can level up to 4-6 word sentences and before you know it they’ll be reading whole books! How, you ask? Just try out our easy to follow leveled reading books here.
- Are you looking for elementary school reading books? Go to your school or local library, or check out our Download Center which is like one big digital library! Books can be read on iPhones, iBooks, and computers.
- Do you want your child to learn about the world while they’re learning to read? Then your best bet is to pick up some non-fiction books for kids. Stick to leveled reading books for the most impact. Leveled reading guides kids through reading step-by-step, and slowly builds confidence in your child. You can find these books at your school library or on our website if you prefer having read aloud books for your child. We have plenty of kindergarten and first grade reading books in our Leveled Reading series.
- Does your child know all the phonics sounds in the English language? Even if they do, it’s a good idea to review these sounds to check your child’s decoding and pronunciation. You’ll find all our fun phonics for kids material here:
- What are some interesting, and cheap, phonics games and activities for summer?? Here and here are some great ideas written by our blogging team.
- Do you want reading ideas that are so fun your kids won’t even realise they’re reading?! Take a look at our collection of kids songs with read along audio. We even have nursery rhymes songs for kids who are a little younger.