(ARA) – For many children, it isn’t easy to find time for summer reading amid adventure-packed trips to the pool or beach, baseball games or family vacations. Research shows children lose one to three months of learning every summer.

If you want to prevent summer learning loss and motivate your children to be avid lifelong readers, follow these top tips from Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) and the Be A Reader campaign for a summer that’s fun-packed but still helps build on your child’s education:

• Make reading an adventure by connecting read-aloud choices to summer activities. Choose books that allow children to explore new places, meet new people and discover new things.
• Find a list of baseball teams in the sports section of the newspaper. Put them in A-B-C order and find their cities on a map.
• Are the stars out tonight? Check out a book on the constellations from your local library and find them in the sky.
• Pretend you are going to visit another city or state. Write to a local tourist bureau for more information about your selected destination. Read about your fantasy trip and write about your travel experiences.
• Plan an outing to your favorite nature center, theme park or zoo. Review the destination brochure or website to plan your activities and what you hope to discover once you get there. Read the maps and field guides as you explore.
• Take books along on summer outings. Pack books in the family beach bag, picnic basket or backpack.
• Swap books with a friend. Keep sharing books throughout the summer.
• Play word games or letter hunts when you’re on the road. Road signs, license plates, street signs and billboards are filled with letters and words.
• Document summer activities and travels in your personal journal. This will improve writing skills and keep treasured memories fresh.
• Read an e-book together online. Visit BuddigBeAReader.com to select your story, and then provide a brief description about your experience with the book. Parents and children who sign up to read a book together and write a short essay will be eligible to win a $1,000 scholarship bond and a free children’s book from Scholastic.

During the yearlong Be A Reader campaign, parents and their children are encouraged to create their own reading and literacy experiences wherever they may be. With the intent of nourishing young minds, Carl Buddig & Company – the lunchmeat brand that has been nourishing families for generations – is partnering with RIF to raise a minimum of $100,000 for children’s literacy programs. For more information about the Be A Reader campaign visit www.Buddig.com. For additional tips to help your child discover the joy of reading, visit www.RIF.org.

This is a game in one of my son’s books. It helps to teach the concept of “up” and “down”.

It needs 2 players, so here is an opportunity to “play” with your child.

• You’ll need 2 counters. You can cut 2 circles from a used cereal box (or something that is just as thick) and draw a koala bear on each circle.
• You’ll also need a die with numbers 1-6.
• Make a die with 3 red sides and 3 blue sides. Actually, instead of a die, I made another counter that is red on one side and blue on the other.
• Roll the die to see how many spaces to move. Then roll the color die (or flip the blue/red counter) to see if your koala moves up or down. If the counter lands on red move up. If it’s blue, move down.
• The first one to reach the top of the tree wins.

p.s. In the end, I just flipped a coin to see if koala moves up or down. This is probably a more hassle-free way.

I hope when you teach your children about the solar system, you know that Pluto is not the 9th planet anymore. If your children ask why (or if you are wondering why yourself), watch this video. It explains it very well.

Happy Learning.
Please leave a comment if you’ve found an educational video that you liked.

I watched this video and I found Sugata Mitra’s talk to be very inspiring. I was amazed at his “experiments” and the results it produced. As a parent, this is what I gained from it:

• Don’t always think that allowing the kids on the computer is a bad thing. It can be used for good. HOWEVER, there must be a goal.  For example, give them a question to solve or a topic to learn more about.
• Group learning is better than learning alone.
• Sometimes we just have to “leave them” to figure things out on their own.
• Have faith in our children; believe they have the potential to do great things.
• Provide an environment that allows learning to happen.
• I especially like the quote by Arthur C. Clarke “If children have interest, then education happens“.

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.