Dear parents, this is an open letter to the parents of today’s children in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I am currently employed as a director of a child care center, and let me just say that this summer has been a real eye opener for me.
We now have the children that have been in school all year at the center, and what I see is troubling.
We have children at the center now who are really struggling in the areas of reading, writing and arithmetic, not math.
I did some research for this short article, and there are estimates that our children are, at the very least, one grade level and in some cases two grade levels behind academically; in younger children, many are showing signs of delays in other developmental areas as well.
Because we know this, what I want to do is to suggest to our parents to please, please do not just let your kids sleep late and play games this summer.
Please have your children read at least one book a week and then take the time our of your busy schedule to talk with them about the book and have them tell you what they read and what they got out of the book.
I know that as parents we are also stressed, mentally and financially, but when your child returns to school next year, I am sure you will see the results of your hard work in helping your kid to succeed next school year.