With summer right around the corner, children are planning a variety of activities to keep themselves entertained during the homework-free months. Biking, swimming, playing sports and video games are all high up on their list. Reading . . . not so much.
According to the Center for Summer Learning, elementary school students lose more than two months’ worth of reading performance each year during the summer. The Department of Education believes that this literary gap will produce approximately 12 million unqualified workers within the next decade.
In an effort to motivate more children to read during the summer months, while simultaneously teaching them a thing or two about savings, TD Bank has officially launched their eighth annual Summer Reading Program, which started Monday, May 3 and lasts until Thursday, September 30.
The TD Charitable Foundation donated $56,000 to New York libraries, including the South Jamaica Queens Library.
“Now more than ever our children need resources and options to help them learn the importance of savings so they are financially literate for years to come,” said Elizabeth K. Warn, executive vice president of community relations at TD Bank and president of the TD Bank Charitable Foundation.
The program, for students 18 years of age and younger, rewards those who read 10 books during the summer with a $10 deposit to their TD Bank Young Savers Account.
According to Lauren Sullivan, TD Bank’s media relation specialist, “About 10,000 to 15,000 children have participated in the Summer Reading program the past few years and we have seen a rise in participation.”
All children have to do is fill out the summer reading form with all of the names of the books read during the summer and bring it to the nearest TD Bank location in order to receive the $10 deposit.
The form is also available online at www.tdbank.com/summerreading.
TD Bank realizes the difficulty parents have when it comes to getting their children to read. In hopes of making this process both easier, as well as fun, they offer a variety of tips on their website, including: letting their child choose books that would interest them, reading the story with them, asking them questions about the story and setting up a time for reading, making it a scheduled activity.
Sullivan noted, “At TD Bank, we believe that reading and financial literacy are key for future education and economic success.”
