The world is slowly awakening from the coronavirus pandemic. Social circles are expanding, and face-to-face contact with others beyond our immediate families is underway. It feels good to see our friends, even two metres away from us.
During the first phase of the pandemic, schools across the globe were closed in an abundance of precaution. In the northern hemisphere, summer has arrived. In normal times, schools should be winding down the academic year as the long, hazy, lazy days of summer come into view for children everywhere.
But things are different now. Really different!
In Canada, and elsewhere, schools have been closed since mid-March. But parents, educators, and caregivers have been encouraged to keep kids learning during this initial lockdown phase. Teachers have responded with creative online learning modules. School has not been the same, but children have been learning. Only time will tell if this cohort of children will in some way be negatively affected in any academic way.
One thing is certain though, there are many ways to learn, even while at home, and even with little at-hand supervision or instruction. Some children have surely learned things they wouldn’t have in school, perhaps a new skill like baking or gardening.
At DC Canada, we have been building an online reading platform for the past year. To date, the following series are online and available for use during these trying times.
- Best Reading Phonics – Short Vowels, the best tool for beginner readers;
- Super Hammy – My First Reading Series and its French equivalent, Super Hami Collection Première;
- and our popular One Story a Day reading series which includes more than 1,000 levelled stories for kids ages 4 and up
Free trial subscriptions are open now to assist parents and teachers in finding good materials for their children to read and explore. There are numerous other online platforms to turn to during this pandemic. We think ours is right there among the best. Check it out, take it for a spin, sit down with your child, and read some of the stories together. If you like it, come back for more.
We don’t want to replace schools or in-person learning. But trying times call for innovative solutions. After all, necessity is the mother of invention!
Here are a few facts:
- During this crisis, schools have closed for an estimated 1.2 billion kids. Wow!
- Around the world before the crisis, nearly $20 billion USD were spent on education/technology.
- Some estimates show a 30 percent increase in retention among children who learn online.
- Kids learn faster when using online learning platforms. Researchers think this is because the child controls the pace of learning, can skip things, and go faster or slower, depending on their individual needs.
So don’t worry if you have to focus on work. Leave your kids with our online platform for a few hours and see for yourself how much they can learn independently (with a little help from DC Canada).
