PORTLAND, Maine — Schools will start up again very soon, even though it's still a little unclear what classes will look like.
While there is no argument that there has been a gap in learning through the pandemic, education advocate Nadine Levitt says kids also need this summer break to reset.
Levitt is the founder of WURRLYedu, an educational technology platform. She spoke with us about striking the right balance this August between learning and relaxing.
This year has seen a lot of kids fall behind in terms of academic progress, so should you rush to online learning to try and close the gap before it becomes a grand canyon?
"There seems to be a real learning loss, but exactly how big that loss is, we don’t really know because so many districts opted out of standardized testing," Levitt explains. "Early data seems to indicate that there’s a huge gap particularly in mathematics, but what I find really really important, and I think educators and parents need to remember, is this mind/body balance. We see it in athletes all the time that you have to optimize the mind and the body in order to be able to learn. If a student doesn’t feel like they are capable that they can and will learn, they won’t."
As a parent how can you tell if your child really needs more education or if they really just need a time out this summer?
"It doesn’t have to be neither here nor there," says Levitt. "I think you can always continue to learn no matter how good you are, and little things like half an hour of reading a day is just good for everybody, five days a week. But don’t battle your kids for it because that will take a love of reading away. Remember things like cooking, for example, a great activity to try and it requires reading and it requires a little mathematics - measurements and so forth. If your kids really want to stay in front of the TV just turn the sound off and put subtitles on and then they’re reading, Voila!"
To learn more about what Levitt has learned about education from athletes, click here.
To learn more about activities she suggests, click here.