I love reading the bulletin boards lining the halls of my school each fall. "What I did on my summer vacation," tops each board as teachers creatively display the writings of their new students' summer experiences with pictures of flowers, cutouts of animals and autumn leaves.

A student's first attempt at writing after a three-month break from the rigor of academics, display the creativity and hard work of students who read, write and have an enriched academic environment over the summer. Also on display is the work of students who take the summer off academically, struggling writers and students who have learning deficits in reading and writing.

Sadly, 60 percent of primary students find this task a challenge, 20 percent struggle significantly writing about their summer experiences and 2-5 percent of children find the task impossible. The good news; at the end of the school year, 85-98 percent of all school children will be able to read grade level text independently with proper instruction.

I took an academic break every summer of my youth. I rode my bike around town, played baseball, swam at the pool and basically lived the leisurely life of a 7-year-old. I suffered for my scholastic laziness. I remember being asked to put my name on the upper right corner of a worksheet by my teacher on the first day of second grade. I could not remember how to spell my last name - embarrassing! Remembering my academic struggles as a child, I made myself a promise to ensure my child and grandchildren embrace learning throughout their summer.

When a child does not have the baseline knowledge required to be successful in school or loses the information over the summer due to lack of exposure the child suffers - not just for the upcoming school year, but for the rest of his or her life. When a child enters kindergarten, first or second grade deficient in the skills necessary to read at grade-level, the child begins the year behind other children and must have remediation to catch up. If the child is not offered the necessary accommodations, the child falls further behind and catching up becomes difficult or impossible. This becomes a huge problem as a child progresses through each grade and creates a greater divide.

Students who learn to read early continue to improve in reading or get academically richer and students who do not learn to read early become poorer academically or become increasingly distanced from the academically rich in reading ability. How can a parent battle this from happening? Reading, writing, reciting the alphabet and exploring the world with one's child are important skills required to keep a child prepared for school during the summer months.

Parents who understand the skills required for a child to become a skilled reader are better able to teach skills necessary for success over the summer. There are seven factors that influence reading development in students. These factors include:

• Development of phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle - a phoneme is a speech sound. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that spoken language is composed of phonemes and involves the ability to blend, segment and manipulate phonemes in spoken words. The alphabetic principle simply understands each letter of the alphabet in the lower and upper case forms.

• Ability to decode words - decoding involves converting the printed word into its spoken form.

• Automaticity with enough words - proficient readers recognize and obtain meaning from words rapidly, effortlessly and unconsciously.

• Acquisition of vocabulary along with the application of reading comprehension strategies. Vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to reading comprehension; one cannot understand text without knowing what most of the words mean. There are two types of word knowledge: definitional knowledge and contextual knowledge. Definitional knowledge is similar to the information included in the dictionary definition. Contextual knowledge comes from exposure to a word in multiple contexts from different perspectives.

• Extensive reading of both narrative and expository test. Narrative text is usually text written to entertain while expository text is usually written to communicate information.

• Maintaining the motivation to learn. Reading should be enjoyable for a child. Choose books focusing on the child's interest and continually support reading as important.

• Adequate teacher preparation and materials. As a parent, you are the teacher of your child. Have books readily available in your home, turn off the television and create family time around reading. Play reading games, read aloud and offer quiet time for reading independently.

As Thomas Edison states, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework." I strongly urge parents to immerse your children in language over the summer - help your child do her homework. Read daily with your children, teach your child how her world works and become an academic explorer. Help your child reach her full academic potential this summer. Her future depends on it.

If you wish to comment or offer suggestions, please email me at [email protected].