Summer vacation is supposed to be a break from the usual routine of school, but many parents worry their kid’s reading skills will digress without some sort of action plan. According to the "Kids and Family Reading Report," a survey done by Scholastic, an American publishing company, those fears might not be far from the truth for some.

Scholastic’s most recent report showed that among kids ages 9-11, 14% did not read any books during the summer of 2018, compared with 7% in 2016. Among kids ages 15-17, 32% did not read any books during the summer of 2018, compared with 22% in 2016.

Now, before you hit the panic button, it’s important to let you know that the same report found that nearly 60% of kids ages 6-17 did have a positive experience reading books over the summer. So, what can you do as a parent to help increase your child’s odds of having a positive reading experience during their time off from school?

First, give your child permission to read as many books as possible this summer for pleasure. Let them choose their own books whether they are easy or hard, long or short. The truth is that it doesn’t matter as long as they enjoy them. Also, let them know that you are not going to ask them questions to find out whether they understood the books or not. If they can understand enough of a book to enjoy it and want to go on reading it, then let them!

Secondly, if a child doesn’t want to finish a book they’ve started, that’s okay! They should give an author a chance to get the story going, but if they don’t like the characters and don’t care what happens to them, it’s perfectly okay to find a different book.

Lastly, you must keep in mind that reading is reading regardless of the venue. Let your child select what they want to read from hard cover books and magazines to online versions. Giving a child permission to read for pleasure will be the best thing you can do for them over the summer! Too often, reading is associated with comprehension questions and vocabulary checks. When you remove them, reading for pleasure becomes the focus!