Reading is the key to keeping kids' skills up over the summer.

By Caroline Knorr, Common Sense Media editor

Summer slide -- when kids forget what they learned from the school year -- is pretty common. But there's one proven method for preventing it: reading. Kids who read a lot over the summer not only maintain reading skills, they go back to school better prepared for all subjects.

There are many ways to get kids reading. Schedule regular sessions every day, read with them, read to them, and help them choose a wide array of material -- even comic books. Check out our Summer Reading List for Kids for book picks for all ages. And if your kids are reluctant readers, consider these books to coax them.

Frequent skill-building sessions throughout the summer help, too. Try these math and science programs and reading and writing boosters.

And remember, it's OK -- in fact, it's beneficial -- for kids to get bored, too. Downtime encourages kids to use their imagination and creativity and develop their inner selves -- essential skills they

Once upon a time, I was a little girl whose dreams didn't solely consist of being a mother.

I was exactly one year old when Helen Reddy's seminal "I Am Woman" song was introduced to the world. It was 1972 and, in that same year, the Ms. Foundation for Women introduced one of my favorite childhood books (with an accompanying album) titled "Free to Be…You and Me". Both of these events contributed greatly to how I grew up despite the fact that my parents held traditional roles of the time. My mom stayed at home to raise three daughters while my father went out and opened his own printing company. If I picked up on my mother's frustrated domesticity it was quickly altered when she, with the help of my father, opened up her own printing shop and became her own boss. We girls were a bit older by then and were expected to work at her shop as well as at my father's. This helped us get a sense of what the working world would be like and the family expectation was that we would attend

Miles Ambridge is visibly segregated from his classmates in his Grade 2 photo. (Photo via The Province)

Class photos usually end up on the family fridge, but the snapshot Anne Belanger received of her son’s Grade 2 class in New Westminster, B.C. went straight back into the envelope in which it arrived.

The mother of Miles Ambridge was heartbroken to see that her seven-year-old boy, who has spinal muscular atrophy and, as a result, must use a wheelchair, had been placed, chair and all, far off to the side from the rest of his classmates.

This physical distance emphasizes the fact that he’s not included in the group, Belanger tells the Province, and the photo serves as the most egregious example so far.

“Look at the angle that he was in,” she says, referring to the way Miles is clearly craning his body toward the other children to get closer to them in the shot. “He’s ostracized. He wants to be part of the gang so much.”

Even worse, she says, the placement decision was made by the adults who organized the photo.

“Kids can be cruel but this comes from adults, which is even worse,” Belanger adds.

What is wrong with this picture?

It's one of those things that you don't get, until you get it. Unless you are eternally empathetic, you look at this photo and don't see much wrong at all.

To Anne Belanger, mother of Miles, the photo is unbearable to look at.

When the class portrait for her son's Grade 2 class came home, she opened it excitedly, and immediately shoved it back in the envelope. She couldn't look at it. It broke her heart.

Anne's son, Miles, has Spinal Muscular Atrophy. At the age of 13 months, his parents were told that Miles would never walk, he has spent his life in a wheelchair.

Related: 7 things you should NEVER say to a kid

Miles knows he's different than the rest of the kids, but he still tries to fit in. So there he is, on the far side of the image, neck craning as far as he can to stretch into the frame with the rest of his friends. He's beaming. It's school picture day and he's thrilled.

But the photo still broke Anne's heart. The photo was a clear example of

From the age of nine to seventeen I played the clarinet. I wasn't particularly great at it but OK enough to eventually become first chair. But my poor music teachers, first Mr. Kingston and then Mr. Corliagno, they would push and push for me to practice and while I loved and continue to love the feel of music, I would grit my teeth when it came to sitting down each evening for one hour. They said I had potential so I went with it anyway.

Then there was my ninth grade honors global studies teacher. Mr. Renaud. The one who failed me one quarter during the school year. At the end of the year when I came to him to request classes for my sophomore year he recommended that I take Advanced Placement (AP) European History. He wrote a long message the spilled over the allotted space to make a note about 'the student'. Something to the effect of him believing that I would do very well in the class. He also used that 'p' word: Potential. I ended up getting a four on the AP exam that year.

The major players on a recent getaway to Florida. Notice Nora's sass. Hi, everyone! I'm Erin Zammett Ruddy, the newest addition to the Yahoo! Shine parenting crew. I've been blogging for nearly eight years (for Glamour, for Parenting for myself) but this is my first day at Yahoo! and I am so excited...and a little nervous. Many of you have been following me since my Glamour days and I can't thank you enough for your interest and loyalty. Some of you are probably reading me for the first time today and I'm equally grateful-and hope you'll stick around! Here's what you need to know about me: I'm a freelance writer, a former magazine editor (I was at Glamour for eight years before trading in my Conde Nast-appropriate clothes for the yoga-pants/old tee shirt look I currently rock while working from home), a wife, a mother, and a cancer patient/survivor. I was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia when I was 23 and have been in remission for over a decade but I'm technically still a patient because I take a drug every day that keeps my leukemia at bay.

Alexa and her mom, Tori Hensley. Photo: Courtesy of Tori Hensley.Pop quiz: After admitting on national TV to plying her 2-year-old daughter with frequent cups of coffee, as well as a pre-pageant “tinker tea” concoction of Mountain Dew, sweet tea and Pixie Stix, “Toddlers & Tiaras” mom Tori Hensley has received:

A.)   Angry hate mail

B.)    An offer to develop her very own brand of energy drink for children

C.) All of the above

“We’re just in the negotiation stages,” Hensley confirmed to Yahoo! Shine, following a report about the impending product by Radar Online. She said she’s currently working with the unnamed, “big” company to create the drink, which would be marketed to children involved in pageants or dance, as well as—get this—to kids with hyperactivity disorders.

“Caffeine actually reverses it in some children, not all, and can calm them down, instead of putting them on all these pills,” explained Hensley, adding that “of course we’re going to have different doctors, lawyers, everything like that,” involved