Costco Connection - June 2009

slide” can go online to check out the Scholastic Summer Challenge ( www.scholastic.com/ summer), which offers materials to download and age-appropriate booklists in English and Spanish. Kids can enroll in Scholastic’s virtual reading camp and score points for reading, join reading teams, play games and win digital prizes. Other suggestions to keep kids reading include:

•Set a good example. It’s important for kids to see their parents reading. Have kids choose books for the family to share, then take turns

The Costco Connection Costcowarehousesofferboxedclassiccolle c-tions the whole family will enjoy: Nancy Dre w and Hardy Boys mysteries, thrillers (The Tim e Machine, Frankenstein, The Legend of Slee py Hollow and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), fantasi es (Peter Pan, The Wizardof Oz,Alicein Wonderlan d and Pinocchio), adventures (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, Moby Dick an d Huckleberry Finn), girls’ favorites (A Secr et Garden, Anne of Green Gables, A Litt le Princess and Little Women) and an anima l-centered collection (Black Beauty, The C all of the Wild, Doctor Doolittle and The Wind in the Willows). Costco.com also carries a va ri- _ety _of _books _for _young _readers.reading aloud pages or chapters after supp c- w e py es d of d et le l- all in _ri-er,

newspaper articles about sports, entertainment or current events.

The experience is richest when kids read about subjects that interest them: Sports, magic, parties and animals are among the subjects Abramson suggests. Parents can bolster kids’ reading skills, she says, by reading poems and tongue-twisters to teach them phonics and by discussing new vocabulary words.

Parents who want to stop the “summer

at bedtime and/or on weekends. Children too young to read can explain illustrations in a picture book.

• Make books a part of your life. Find ways to welcome books into your family’s life this summer, and your kids will read. Visit your local library often and provide a library card for each family member. Take nature or gardening books outdoors so kids can identify shells, clouds, stars, birds, insects, native plants, vegetables and so on. On picnics, plane trips or long car rides, provide joke collections or books about the places you”ll be visiting.

•Let kids choose. Studies demonstrate that Let kids choose. Studies demonstrate that

kids” reading skills improve most when they
read books they choose themselves. Give
your kids a book-buying allowance in
exchange for chores.
Encourage kids to have fun with books
now and their reading skills will be strong
next fall. Let them fall in love with books they
choose themselves and their love for reading
will endure. C

Costco member Jo Perry is a contributor to

kidsLA Magazine. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, writer Thomas Perry, and

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