Brennen and I have been participating in the TD Summer Reading Club – Canada’s biggest bilingual summer reading program for kids of all ages, interests, and abilities, where kids can:
- Join activities happening in local libraries
- Read books online and get reading recommendations
- Track their own reading and collect stickers and online badges
- Connect online to share jokes, stories, book reviews, and more with other kids across Canada
As part of the TD Summer Reading Club, you receive a summer reading booklet, stickers, a web code and a reading goal sheet. You set a goal of how many books you want to read over the summer, and the great thing is that ALL books count – even books that a grown-up reads to you!
Studies show that kids who keep reading all summer do better when they return to school in the fall. Participating in a summer reading club is a great way to build excitement about reading!
Our local library has a wide variety of books available in alternative formats, and we like to try them out once in a while. Brennen does not read Braille, but we like to let him feel the texture on the pages of a book while we read the story, and he seems to enjoy this!
Brennen received an Accessible Notebook, which includes sections from both the pre-reader and school-age notebooks. Accessible tips have been added to support kids who have vision loss, a learning disability or a physical disability making it difficult to hold or turn the pages of a book.
We had a great time participating in the TD Summer Reading Club once again this year. I read a quote once by an author who said that her hope for all children was that they “feel free to imagine themselves as whoever they want to be in the fictional world, because that is, after all, a stepping stone to imagining yourself as whoever you want to be in the real world.”
I think this is what I hope for Brennen, as we are reading stories together. I hope he is able to imagine himself as a character in the books we are reading, and to use his imagination to take him on all sorts of fun adventures!
What are some children's books that you are loving? I'd love to hear about them!