It’s summer break and kids are ready to unwind and indulge in some fun after the long school year. And they should! We know they deserve the break … but we also know that there are great benefits of reading 20 minutes a day. This is especially true during the summer when they aren’t getting those reading minutes at school.
Read on to understand the benefits of encouraging your child to continue reading over the summer.
5 benefits of reading 20 minutes a day
- Increases Vocabulary
- Builds Emotional Intelligence & Empathy
- Relieves Stress
- Improved Comprehension Skills
- Improved Sleep Quality
Research suggests that a long break from academic work can lead to learning loss. This leaves students overwhelmed and struggling to catch up when school resumes. Luckily, there’s a fun and effective way to keep your child’s academic performance on track this summer – reading! Encouraging your child to read just 20 minutes a day is the key to unlocking summer success.
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Increased Vocabulary
Are you wanting to help you child increase vocabulary skills? This is the key! The more kids read, the more words they encounter and become familiar with. It’s that simple!
You can support this by encouraging your child to read books from various genres and about various topics. As they come across new vocabulary, have them write the word down so you can discuss the meaning and practice using it in everyday conversations. This sort of practice strengthens their cognitive skills and helps them retain the words in their long-term memory.
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Builds Emotional Intelligence & Empathy
Children learn so much about relationship skills, problem resolution and empathy when they’re in school with other kids. In the summer, they typically spend more time with family and less time with their peers. This can lead to a step backward in social skills.
Use reading as a stepping stone to improve emotional intelligence for your child. You can do this by providing books that have characters who face various problems. Talk with your child as they’re reading and ask prompting questions about the characters in the story. Even better, read a book along with your child so you can have the discussions as you’re reading!
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Relieves Stress
Did you know reading just 6 minutes relieves stress by 68%?! Now I understand why I enjoy starting my day off with a short reading session each day. We think of summer break as stress-free but in reality, it can be somewhat stressful for children. They’re used to having a structured schedule all school year. During the summer, that suddenly disappears. Adding a reading schedule to each day can help!
One warning, independent reading isn’t stress free for a child who is learning to read. Be sure to add in some time when they’re also listening to you read a book so they can relax and truly enjoy.
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Improved Comprehension Skills
As you provide various types of books, your child will be exposed to different writing styles, sentence structures, and vocabulary words. They will need to use their problem solving skills and context clues to decipher what is happening in the book or what the author is trying to teach them. This helps them develop a deeper understanding and overall strengthens their comprehension skills.
You can support this by asking questions before, during and after they read. When reading fiction, you can ask them to make predictions, make connections between the book and their own life, or ask what life lesson the author is trying to teach. When reading nonfiction, you can ask for the topic and support details, what the most interesting fact they learned was, or how this connects to what they already knew.
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Improved Sleep Quality
Did you know that reading before bed can not only help you to fall asleep faster, but can also give you a deeper sleep? Studies have shown that 42% of people who read before bed find that their quality of sleep has improved.
The theory is that when you’re reading, it takes you to a different space in your mind. For example, if you’re reading a story, you are thinking about those characters and places. This helps you to forget about the stresses of your day or life and puts you in a more relaxed state. This is especially helpful in the summer, when we often have longer days and kids struggle to fall asleep when it’s still light outside at 9:00!
Hopefully, whether you’re a teacher or a parent, these 5 benefits of reading 20 minutes a day convinced you to encourage children to spend more time reading!
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