Summer Reading and Writing

Summer time! No more grades and assignments for a while!

It’s a great time to enjoy free reading and writing. What you read is entirely up to you. What you write comes right out of what interests you.

Here are a few ideas to help you enjoy reading and writing this summer.

READING
Find your own special place to go and read. This is best a place where you will be alone. My summer between fifth and sixth grade I climbed a sycamore tree in our yard and sat high in the branches with a book each day.

I should tell you that that was the summer I fell in love with reading.

When I entered fifth grade (and should have been in sixth), I was only reading at about a first grade level. My teacher saved my life by taking me aside every day to work on sight words and sounding out letters. We worked up from there to sentences and then paragraphs and then. . . By the end of the school year, I was reading at an eighth or ninth grade level.

It was a miracle.

So find some unstructured time to really enjoyreading about and getting lost in reading what interests you.

With all the camps and organized sports kids have these days, finding this time might be a bit hard to do. You will be rewarded, though, if you find a chunk of free time to wander in your imagination. There is too much noise in our lives these days. Find some quiet time for your own thoughts and interests.

WRITING
Set up a writing station and a time to go to it every day. Writing well takes practice. If you always wait for inspiration, you might not get much done. If you peck away every day, though, you’ll be surprised by how much you produce and by how much better you get at it.

Gather your tools. A laptop might be enough. Otherwise, store your pens, pencils, dictionary, and thesaurus at your writing station or in a backpack you can take to your station every day.

Have a set time to write and make sure other people in your house or apartment know to leave you alone. A thirty minute period might be just the right amount of time for most kids. Not too long; not too short.

If you have a pesty little brother or sister, you might have to ask for some help from an adult to be left alone.

During that writing time, only write. Don’t answer the phone. Don’t go to the kitchen for a snack. Only write or sit quietly looking at and thinking about your writing. A couple of new lines each day will turn into a story or poem in a week or so.

HAVE FUN! Your imagination is a wonderful place to visit!