Parents and carers are being asked to help children beat the Summer Reading Loss by joining children’s book organisation, Little Box of Books, in a Summer of reading. Their campaign #40daysofreading encourages families to read for 10 minutes every day throughout the holidays, helping children to maintain their levels of literacy while not in lessons.
“While children are not in school, they can lose some of the literacy progress they have made over the school term, known as the ‘Summer Reading Loss’. We know reading with children is the single best thing you can do for them for their future academic success, so we want to ask families all over the UK to join us in spending just 10 minutes every day reading, over the 40 days of Summer.” Said Director and co-founder Lynsey Pollard
To join in with the campaign the organisation is asking parents and carers to take pictures of themselves reading with their children, tagging them in social media using #40daysofreading.
“You can write a list of the books you’ve read and take a picture, take pictures of your children reading in unusual places, up a tree, relaxing in a wheelbarrow or on a seesaw, or you can just take pictures of the book you’re enjoying and tag to share with others.”
Little Box of Books specialises in finding the best of inclusive and representative children’s books published in the UK to help children better understand the world and their place in it.
5 tips to encourage Summer reading
- Get to the library and allow child/ren to choose what it is they want to read. Encourage them to pick books they like the look of and are interested in. Children are more likely to keep reading if they enjoy the stories. Magazines, graphic novels, pictures books are all perfectly acceptable.
- Provide opportunities and quiet times to read, switch TVs and computer games off and hide the iPad
- Role model reading. Pick up your own book and get reading. If they see adults reading, they are more likely to do the same.
- Talk to them about the book they’re reading. Find out what the story is about and what they like about it. Allow them to leave books unfinished if they’re not enjoying them. Even if you have an independent reader, mix it up and read some chapters with them. Everyone loves sharing stories.
- Grab a discounted ‘Everybody In’ box from here. You’ll get a reading record and progress stickers to keep track of the books that have been read. Use code SUMMER to get 10% off the box.
For more information contact Lynsey Pollard on 07970269103 or [email protected]
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITOR
Little Box of Books
Little Box of Books was set up by Lynsey Pollard and partner Neil Langston, two parents who didn’t see their blended family in any of the children’s books they read with their son. The company now seek out inclusive and representative children’s books for monthly subscription boxes, one off gift boxes and for schools, nurseries and hospitals.
They find brilliant books that feature BAME characters, characters with disabilities, stepdads, step mums, single parents, two mums, two dads, books featuring positive gender representations and anything else that properly reflects society.
The aim of the organisation is for all children to see themselves in the books they read and to feel validated but to also give kids insight into families and worlds that are different to theirs.
Everybody in book package costs £99.99 plus P&P, available from www.littleboxofbooks.co.uk/product/everybody-in-4-7/
For more information visit www.littleboxofbooks.co.uk