Goddard School Combats Reading “Summer Slide”

The award-winning Goddard School in Third Lake provides a great way for children to spend their summers. The summer curriculum incorporates STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) learning into exciting and fun experiences for children up to 8 years of age.

The Goddard School in Third Lake is partnering with Bernie’s Book Bank to ensure that children will continue their life-long love of reading during the summer break and help alleviate “summer slide.”

“The Goddard School emphasizes reading as a fundamental life skill for future success,” stated Owner David Raye, “a child can lose up to 20% of their school-year gains in reading during summer vacation and we are determined to slow it down.”

The Goddard School in Third Lake will dedicate 100 hours over 7 weeks of Summer Camp for children 4 – 8 years of age. For every hour a camp classroom reads, the school will donate a new book to Bernie’s Book Bank.

The classrooms will be given book coloring pages that they will color for each hour they complete. The readers will add this to a display to track their progress. At the end of the summer each camper will receive a reward from Bernie’s Book Bank for all the hours read.

The partnership will culminate with a donation celebration where The Goddard School will present the books earned over the 100 hours and families can donate books as well.

Bernie’s Book Bank has distributed over 15 million books in the last decade to At-Risk infants, toddlers, and school-age children throughout Chicagoland. The Chicagoland Goddard Schools have collected and donated close to 200,000 books over the last 5 years through an annual book drive held each January.

The Goddard School is a nationally acclaimed private preschool and daycare that nurtures children, helping prepare them for school, career and life.

The Goddard School in Third Lake is pleased to be serving the communities of Central Lake County, including Gurnee, Grayslake, Lindenhurst, and Lake Villa since 2004. Since then, we have grown to be one of the preeminent, award-winning Goddard Schools in the United States.