Summer can be a wonderful break from school... but it can also be the time when reading routines completely disappear. 📚☀️ I'd love to hear from both parents and teachers: What's the biggest challenge you face when trying to keep kids reading over the summer? Maybe it's: 📖 "They'd rather do anything else." 😩 "Getting them to read isn't the problem, getting them to finish a book is." 🎮 Screens win every time. 🏖️ Vacations throw off every routine. 😕 They say reading is "boring." 📚 Finding books they're actually excited to read. Or maybe it's something completely different! There's no judgment here—we've all seen kids who would rather build a fort, swim, play video games, or do just about anything else than pick up a book. 😄 Comment below: What's the #1 obstacle you've run into, and if you've found something that actually works, share that too! Your idea might be exactly what another family or teacher needs to hear.

☀️ Let’s talk about the “summer slide.” Most parents have heard that kids lose skills over the summer, but here’s the part that matters most: It’s not usually because kids “forgot everything.” It’s often because they stop practicing the skills that were already shaky. For strong readers, summer can feel like a break. For struggling readers, summer can widen the gap, especially if they avoid reading because it feels hard, frustrating, or embarrassing. The good news? Preventing summer slide does not require hours of worksheets or turning your summer into school. A few simple things can make a huge difference: 📚 Reading aloud together 🎧 Listening to audiobooks while following along 🧠 Reviewing sounds, word attack strategies, and tricky words 💬 Talking about books, movies, signs, recipes, menus, or anything with words The goal is not perfection. The goal is keeping the reading brain active so your child doesn’t lose momentum. I’m curious — what feels hardest for your family during the summer? 1️⃣ Getting your child to read 2️⃣ Finding books they actually like 3️⃣ Staying consistent 4️⃣ Knowing what skills to practice 5️⃣ Avoiding battles over reading Drop the number that fits your family best 👇

Most words can be decoded. Many words taught as "sight words" are just high frequency words like "said", "for", and "they". It's better to give kids a strong, solid strategy to decode all but the few true sight words. I don't teach any sight words directly. I only address them after students are dependent on the decoding strategies I teach them. They need to be proficiently reading CVC, VCC, CCVC, and CVCC words first. Here's a short list of words that I allow to be memorized as sight words: one, two, of, does, and who. What other sight words can you think of that can't be decoded with the right background knowledge? In which words can you not match sounds to letters in the order they come in the word? (ex: one)

Inconsistent word reading can show that the child has not fully mapped the sounds and spellings yet. Does your child read a word correctly on one page and miss it on the next?

Guessing often means the child is relying on pictures, memory, or context instead of the sound to symbol relationship in words. Children need a solid word attack strategy to rely on. For your chronic guesser: Cover the picture and ask, "What sounds do we say when we see these letters?" instead of "What word would make sense?" By asking your child which word will make sense, they may come up with a much better word than is in the text, defeating the purpose. It could lead to the child misunderstanding the purpose of words and how they are represented.