Its Memorial Day weekend eve, and millions of parents across the nation are asking this question, “What can I do to help my child this summer?” 

1. My first response is “Give the kid a break!”, but most of the parents who ask this question don’t want to hear that answer, and the research is pretty clear that summer reading helps kids maintain good academic skills, so here are some other  ideas:
2. The website Reading Rockets has a number of articles about summer reading.  I like “10 Weeks of Summer Reading Adventures for You and Your Kids” at http://www.readingrockets.org/articles/391.  They also have a summer reading list you can download: http://www.readingrockets.org/content/pdfs/buyingguide/2010summer_allages.pdf.
3. Every year, the website of the American Library Service to Children publishes a list of award-winning books for children.  Find the  2010 list here: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/notalists/ncb/index.cfm
4. For boys who don’t like to read, the website www.guysread.com has lists of books sorted by categories such as “at least one explosion”, “how to build stuff”, “people being transformed into animals” and “boxers, wrestlers, and ultimate fighters.”
5. Listening to audio books can also be a fun activity for the whole family during summer road trips: the top audio books of  the year are sorted by age level and listed at http://theaudies.com/.  Audiofile magazine has just released its 2010 Edition of Summer Listening for Kids & Families: http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/abotg10.html.  Audio books read by actors  can be especially helpful for modeling good reading fluency to ADHD kids who struggle with this skill. 
6. Finally, for parents who are desperate to have your child read this summer but you’re not sure what books are appropriate, you can now find a “lexile” score on most group-administered standardized or state-mandated reading test reports.  You can use this number to find names of books for your child using the “Find a Book” on-line tool (www.lexile.com/findabook).    If you don’t know or can’t find your child’s lexile score, you can go to the “Find a Book” site, enter your child’s grade, and then indicate if he or she has trouble reading grade-appropriate materials in the classroom.     I have also seen a long and confusing equation that somehow changes percentiles into lexiles, but I don’t recommend trying this unless you’re a very patient rocket scientist, and the last time I checked the stats for this blog, most of my readers are impatient rocket scientists.

 That’s all I have!  What are your thoughts about helping your child this summer?