Randi from Swoon is with us today to share a lovely summer reading kit for the blossoming young readers in our lives.

Summer is a wonderful time to think up creative ways to maintain and build on everything our children have learned in the last school year. New and early readers need lots of practice and opportunities to grow the skills they’ve already mastered, and we want children to feel confident as they step into the next school year.  

Practice is the key! As a starting point this summer, you can put together a little box filled with activities to do together several times a week.

So, what’s in the box?

A stack of new readers and a fun bookmark. Be sure to check out your local library too, to see about joining their summer reading program. You can add more books as the summer goes on!

A homemade phonics game. We came across this lovely idea over on the Playdough to Plato blog. Using paper and stickers, transform two blocks into a fun game about word families. Roll the dice and sound out the word. The first one to make 10 real words wins!

A homemade phonetic flip chart. This flip chart is all about sounding out words. Simply take a notebook and cut the pages into three equal sections. Write the consonants in the first section and some common blends found at the beginning of words. Vowels go in the middle section, and consonants and common blends are found at the end of words in the last section. Find complete instructions over at Kids Activities Blog.

As the summer progresses, you can add more things to the box and change activities as needed. We LOVE the idea of giving something like this as a gift to a new reader in your life. The box’s contents could easily be modified for a child in the pre-reading stages, or to fit the needs of a more advanced reader as well. The idea is to create a pretty and functional spot that has everything needed to inspire little ones.

Happy summer reading!