3 Adventures to Make Summer Reading Fun
The Adventures with Divot & Swish children’s book series provides a unique opportunity to make summer reading more fun by engaging kids in creative projects, travel experiences, and sports and physical activity. The combined impact of COVID school closures in 2020 and 2021, along with the typical summer learning loss of approximately 20% in reading, raises the importance of consistently engaging kids in summer reading activities.
Here are three ideas to combine with reading Adventures with Divot & Swish for fun summer adventures:
1 - Download the FREE Divot & Swish coloring sheets.
Whether you read to your toddlers, older siblings read to younger siblings, or your elementary-aged kids read to you, kids of every age love to color.
Additionally, you can use the FREE downloadable discussion guides for thought-provoking questions, as well as helping kids identify animals and fish, learn superpowers, and more.
2 - Take FLAT Divot & Swish on your summer outdoor adventures.
Download FLAT Divot & Swish for FREE and then invite kids to color and make them uniquely their own. After they’ve finished coloring, we encourage you to cut out and laminate to help them last throughout the summer. Then, take FLAT Divot & Swish on your summer adventures whether that is swimming at a pool or lake, flying a kite at a local park, playing miniature golf, going on family bike rides, or hiking at your favorite state park.
For each outdoor adventure, find a fun spot to take a picture of FLAT Divot & Swish enjoying the adventure with your kids. Please post your pictures on social media using #divotandswish to help spread the word about developing inner superpowers like courage and confidence with Divot & Swish.
3 - Challenge kids to create a SUPERPOWER CHALLENGE for a sport or physical activity.
For example, if kids want to create a superpower challenge for COURAGE, ask each of them to write down or share 1-2 things they would like to try during summer that would take courage. If one of the kids has never skateboarded, then that could be their superpower challenge the next time they connect for a playdate. Or if one of the kids has never done a flip off the diving board, then they could all go swimming and encourage their friend to do a flip. Both with proper safety gear and supervision, of course.
Creating a series of superpower challenges over the summer is a great way for kids to have fun, but also to invite parents, guardians, grandparents, and aunts/uncles to have conversations with kids about important life skills that will help kids become their best in all walks of life.
Have fun with your kids as you share these summer reading adventures and know it is time well invested. As American author and educator, Margaret Fuller, said: “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.”