The time has come, and the virtual doors have opened. I welcomed a mixture of returning and brand-new students to summer reading (with yours truly) on Monday. And, it’s been an absolute delight! There have been a couple of kinks in the process, starting right off the bat, but I’ve been able to navigate quite nicely around them and keep the children moving forward without missing a beat.

The past two summers, I hosted one-on-one tutoring with the children. There are so many benefits to working with and giving your undivided attention to one child at a time, and this is the go-to format that I’ve used during the regular academic year when tutoring children. However, I decided to try my hand (for the very first time) at providing a group class format for teaching reading for this third year of my summer reading program.

One of the little kinks (that’s really a pretty big one) is the fact that I didn’t anticipate the different end-of-the-school-year schedules for students across the U.S. as well as internationally. I tend to have tunnel vision sometimes and think that everywhere else around the world follows a similar path to what is going on in my own neck of the woods.

When in fact, there are different things going on in different places around the U.S. — ALL OF THE TIME. And, this very fact is true in the educational arena. The school year, here in the Midwest (where I live), ends in mid-to-late May. But, the students I serve live all over the U.S. Some of them end their school year around mid-to-late May, and some end mid-to-late June.

The challenge with putting group sessions together during the summer months is that it can be really difficult to get classes filled when students won’t be able to start the program at the same time due to schedules. So, although I had some sessions start this week, there will be some sessions that won’t start until the beginning of July to accommodate those students that won’t be done with their school year until the end of June.

I didn’t fully take this scenario into account when I was planning to switch over to classes of 3-5 students. Again, it was that tunnel vision of mine that kept me from fully taking in the scope of scheduling complexity I would need to account for in setting up my summer program.

Oh, and the end-of-school-year phenomenon isn’t the only timing issue that presents a problem. It’s the whole summer-break phenomenon, in and of itself. Children have special events – vacations, summer camps, weekly activities of all sorts, extended sleep routines, and just want to have fun, in general. All these events also need to be taken into account in order to accommodate children who have things going on other than the Degrees of Maternity Summer Reading Program.

And that’s quite alright, because I’m working out the intricate scheduling needs for my students as I go. Thankfully, my program processes are structured but flexible enough to adjust for the rolling out of classes on a staggered basis. Meaning . . . the classes starting now (for the students I have who live in the Midwest and South) will go for 8 weeks and end early August (right before the children’s school year starts again). And, I will be starting some classes (for the students living on the East Coast) the beginning of July that will go 8 weeks and end at the end of August (right before the children’s school year starts again).

I’m so happy that I set up certain systems in my program that will allow for flexibility in execution. Having good systems in place will save you every time. Here’s what it boils down to: you live and learn and apply gained knowledge skillfully for the next go-around. And for next year, I won’t be naive about the scheduling because I’m working out the kinks right now.

Nevertheless, I’m really pleased with how things have started out. This week, overall, has been a great success, and I’m having a ball with the children in the program. They are an awesome bunch. Attentive. Polite and respectful. Prepared and ready to engage in the reading instruction given. And, the parents are invested in their children’s reading success, positively reinforcing the importance of reading on their end, as well.

Again, I’m having a blast! So much so, I’m looking to take on a few more students. Currently, enrollment in the Degrees of Maternity Summer Reading Program is happening through the end of this month. On June 30th, enrollment for this summer’s program will end. So, please contact me if you have a 2nd through 5th grader who could use some reading instruction this summer. Or, if you know of someone who has a child who could use some reading instruction during the school break, please feel free to forward the two links (below) to those individuals.

Remember: the summer slide is real, and I want to assist in an effort to prevent as many children as possible from experiencing it.

You can watch this video for an overview of the reading program, and you can contact me here to set up an Interest Meeting to get even more program information if you like what you see in the video.

Let’s Keep Our Children Reading!