Holly King-Mand is a writer, speaker, teacher, and literacy campaigner & advocate. She is widely recognised as ‘the nation’s favourite English teacher’ for her work to keep children learning English during the pandemic and for inspiring many more since.
The summer holidays will have many parents thinking about how to fill the long, languid break with fun activities and opportunities to keep the kids learning. It’s widely accepted that keeping their brains working and learning can make a marked difference in how well they access learning come September. This shouldn’t be a challenge, though; building on their literacy skills this smer might be easier (and more fun!) than you think! Here are my top tips for family literacy…
The library… of course!
The most obvious tip is to visit the library regularly. You don’t even need to take books home! Having a positive and enjoyable experience and reading books together in the children/youth areas is a brilliant way to instil a love of reading – something that will help all children succeed. Look up what events your local library offers – they often have arts and crafts sessions, Lego clubs, and even author visits! If your children are very young, they may have a weekly story time session you can attend.
Reading for pleasure
Children who read for pleasure have more confidence in reading, writing and communication, so it’s worth giving this a little attention this summer. To keep things fun, consider encouraging your child’s positive attitude to reading in one of these ways:
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Create a reading nook together. It could simply be a bedsheet suspended across two chairs with a string of fairy lights and some cushions, or maybe you could repurpose a space in your home together to create a more long-term space for enjoying books.
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Get their friends involved! Arrange a get-together and ask everyone to bring a book they’ve loved and share them. If everyone enjoys the experience, meet up again and reshare! It will be a great way for the children to evaluate and discuss the books they’ve read.
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Be secret book reviewers. Borrow a book from the library, write a review, and tuck the review into the book when you return it. Younger children might simply comment about liking the characters, whereas older children might write in more detail about the story’s quality.
Oracy
Have you heard of Oracy but are not sure what it is? Oracy is the ability to communicate well through speaking, which can also feed into your child’s literacy skills. The best thing about helping your child improve their oracy is that you’ll get to spend quality time together just talking.
There are all sorts of things you can do; for example, discuss your top 5 film characters, sports, local parks, snacks… anything! Ask your child to give reasons for their choices and model well-developed arguments for your own choices.
If starting a ‘top-5’ discussion doesn’t suit you, try other things like reminiscing in detail of trips or activities you enjoyed last summer. Describe the sights, sounds, and smells, and practise using a range of vocabulary to paint pictures with your words.
Slightly older children might enjoy more formal oracy-based activities such as writing and performing persuasive speeches or dramatic monologues. They can experiment with the tone of their voice and their body language – a useful skill to develop.
Adventures and the Great Outdoors
Literacy isn’t limited to ‘studying’ at a table… get out into the outdoors! If boosting literacy skills through adventure is your thing, try these fun activities…
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Depending on your child’s age, you can spell out words in sand or mud with sticks or spell out works with pebbles and leaves. Using natural resources is a wonderful way of reinforcing the learning they have done in more formal environments.
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Whether you are jetting off to exotic climes or spending your days revisiting the local park, writing letters and postcards is a sweet and useful way of maintaining reading, writing and spelling skills over the summer holidays.
But most importantly, whatever you do with your family this summer, have fun and make memories!