This article is written by Lorne Chase, marketing and communications coordinator at Newmarket Public Library. Click here to find out more about the library and its events and programs.
Ah, summer vacation.
Kids look forward to time off from tests and studying. They enjoy getting outdoors in the fresh air, playing sports, going on trips. But eight weeks is a long time to go without cracking open a book (or downloading one) to read.
It’s a known fact that reading skills decline during the long break from classes. There’s even a term for it: summer learning loss. For children who don’t read during this time, the drop in reading skills is significant.
According to the Canadian Council On Learning, children forget quite a bit of what they were taught during the previous school year; the equivalent of a month of classroom instruction. And the result is that teachers have to allocate a significant amount of time for review at the beginning of the school year.
For parents concerned about this literacy loss, there is help at hand. Every summer Newmarket Public Library participates in the TD Summer Reading Club, a program delivered by more than 2,000 public libraries across the country. (It was co-created by Toronto Public Library, in partnership with Library and Archives Canada, and is sponsored by TD Bank Group.)
More than 327,000 children have participated in the program in previous years, and the objective is to engage youngsters and get them wanting to read more books.
“Kids have fun picking books, keeping track of what they’ve read, and joining the reading club activities the library holds during the summer,” says Susan Hoffman, the library’s Head of Children’s Services.
When children six to 12 years of age sign up for the Summer Reading Club, they receive a welcome booklet and a log sheet to keep track of the number of books they read. At the end of the summer, they bring their log sheets back in to receive prizes. This provides them with an incentive to keep reading.
The library also offers the Read-to-Me Club for kids aged three to five, which allows parents to pick up a reading log, read books to their pre-schoolers and enter the contest for prizes.
And the Teen Summer Reading Club is for those aged 12 and older. The teen club is also referred to as The Amazing Reading Race, and the objective for teens is to read eight books during the summer, and they receive a ballot for each one read for a chance to win prizes.
This year’s theme at the library is Get Out In Nature, promoting reading books related to nature and the outdoors. Throughout the summer, fun activities and programs take place in support of the reading club.
It’s a tale familiar to educators and many parents: long, hot summer days are great for play but not so great for literacy.
Without encouragement, many children just won’t keep up their reading skills during the time away from class. But the story doesn’t need to turn out that way. Thanks to the annual TD Summer Reading Club there is a happier ending.
Registration for the Summer Reading Club begins on Saturday, June 15 at the Children’s Services Information Desk on the library’s second floor. For more information on the club, visit www.newmarketpl.ca/tdsrc
