The Importance of Summer Reading

Reading well is at the heart of all learning. Children who can't read well, can't learn.

• Reading with or to a child over the summer will help keep a child's reading skills alive and prevent the loss of reading skills over the summer.
• About 40 percent of fourth graders cannot read and understand a simple paragraph from a children's book.
• A child can start getting ready to read as an infant, and a child who is introduced to reading early is more likely to become a good reader.
• A home with lots of magazines, newspapers and books gives a child a choice of learning opportunities and reading materials.
• Children with families who spend time discussing, explaining, and asking questions, know more words than other children.
• Visit your local library. Ask your local librarian to help you get a library card, find books and other printed materials, access the Internet from public access computers, and participate in story time sessions with your children. Call the American Library Association to find a library near you at 1-800-545-2433.

Participate in the U.S. Department of Education's Summer Reading Campaign

The U.S. Department of Education has developed a Summer Reading Campaign, "No Such Thing as a Vacation from Reading," to encourage families and other reading partners to read with a child this summer to help prevent summer fall-off (the loss of up to three months of reading skills when children do not read over the summer).

Invite a child to read with you every day.

• When reading a book where the print is large, point word by word as you read. This will help your child learn that reading goes from left to right and understand that the word he or she says is the word he or she sees.
• Read your child's favorite book over and over again.
• Read many stories with rhyming words and lines that repeat. Invite your child to join in on these parts. Point, word by word, as he or she reads along with you.
• Discuss new words. For example, "This big house is called a palace. Who do you think lives in a palace?"
• Stop and ask about the pictures and about what is happening in the story.
• Read from a variety of children's books, including fairy tales, songs, poetry, and information books.

How to Help Your Child

A child who says he or she doesn't like reading may have a reading problem. Listen and watch how your child reads and understands written materials. If your child can't listen to a story, avoids printed words, or refuses to try sounding out words, you should get extra reading help for your child.

Sign your child up for before-and after-school programs.

• Call the U.S. Department of Education at 1-800-USA-LEARN and ask for materials on how to help your child with reading and for information about after-school programs.
• Use the U.S. Department of Education's Web sites www.ed.gov, www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/, and http://pfie.ed.gov/.

Get free printed materials.

• Call your local Boys and Girls Club, YMCA/YWCA or other similar group, community center or school principal to ask specifically for reading skills programs for your child.
• Access the 21st Century Community Learning Centers site www.ed.gov/programs/21stcclc/awards.html to look for reading skills programs in your area.

Do you or does another adult you know want to read better?

Call l-800-228-8813 to reach the Adult Literacy Hotline.

Have You Read With Your Child, Every Day, for Six Weeks?

• After reading for at least six weeks, use the enclosed award certificate, and reward your child with one free Personal Pan Pizza (Registered Trademark) for work well done! [NOTE: certificate not posted on the Web. See information below for obtaining a certificate.]
• For additional certificates, call ED PUBS toll free at 1-877-433-7827.

Free materials on reading

• Contact ED PUBS toll free at 1-877-433-7827 or at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/.

Reading is a gateway to education. When a child can read, the possibilities for learning are limitless.

U.S. Secretary of Education
Rod Paige

U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20202
1-800-USA-LEARN

A joint project of the U.S. Department of Education and Pizza Hut, Inc.
2001