EDITORIAL: Count reading as another activity for summer fun

Published 9:00 am Wednesday, June 12, 2024

For the next several months, reading doesn’t have to mean sitting at a school desk.

Libraries such as the Dalton-Whitfield County Public Library and the Chatsworth-Murray County Public Library are launching annual summer reading programs to not only nurture a general love of lifelong reading, but to help kids avoid what educators call “summer slide.”

In Whitfield and Murray counties, “Adventure Begins at the Library” is the gateway to a summer full of reading. The program, which encourages participants to log reading activities to complete challenges and earn badges, kicked off earlier this month and runs through July 19. You can register at ngrl.beanstack.org.

Students who don’t regularly read during summer vacation typically regress in reading skills. Research from the Children’s Literacy Initiative suggests students who do not read during summer months can fall two years behind by fifth grade.

Beyond summer reading, libraries coordinate all kinds of fun activities, including storytimes, craft projects and musical entertainment.

The libraries in Whitfield County and Murray County are no exception, with each week during the summer packed with events geared toward kids, teens, adults and readers of any age. A schedule of events at the Northwest Georgia Regional Library system can be found at ngrl.org/events.

Reading doesn’t have to be a chore or be assigned. Kids should be armed with library cards and pursue materials they are interested in. Librarians also know how to find a variety of books for different-level readers.

Librarians say families need to model taking time to read every day — and everything counts: listening to audiobooks, reciting nursery rhymes or poetry, singing, rapping, reading aloud sports knowledge and news of the day, looking up facts about the planets, selecting and making recipes, telling elephant jokes, etc.

If participants haven’t enrolled yet in the library’s summer reading program, that’s no problem. Kids can start anytime — and can read anywhere, whether that be in a hammock, at the beach or in a corner of an air-conditioned library.