Like many of you, we’ve had a lot on our mind this week; between rising COVID numbers in the US, and anxieties around learning outcomes as more parents contemplate homeschooling, know that we are in this with you.

This week we took the time to speak with our head of curriculum, Jessica. She’s the one behind the magic that happens here at Dailies — how does she keep all those wonderful vocabulary words in her head? Vociferous, potentiate, redolent…we need to take more Dailies to make sure we can keep up with her during meetings! Check out her feature here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=973901096462663

This week we have some numbers about the Corona-virus, and ways that parents and educators can help keep students learning even as schools remain remote.

Some Data on Our Mind…

The world is rapidly evolving, and education is evolving alongside it. As we’ve gone about our workdays here, there has been some data on our minds which has reminded us of how important our work is. Currently, 1.1 billion students are out of school worldwide due to the pandemic (UNESCO). This is approximately 60.9% of enrolled students, which means the majority of students not just in the United States, but in the world, are not able to have a traditional education. (https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse)

This has a massive impact on students, the longer they stay away from school, or from a curriculum, the more years of education they may fall behind. The Brooking’s Institution reports that students whose learning is reduced by 1/3, will be a full year behind by grade 10. (https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2020/06/15/how-much-learning-may-be-lost-in-the-long-run-from-covid-19-and-how-can-mitigation-strategies-help/

These are troubling numbers and remind us of why we work so hard to make education more equitable. In a time where more young people than ever are on the internet for longer periods of time, we want to ensure we are creating opportunities for that time to be well spent. Our goal is that Dailies will be both a fun and helpful solution to parents wondering how to stay on top of their student’s educational journey.

Stopping Years of Loss at Home

We recently asked Jessica about ways parents can prevent their students from suffering some of the losses discussed above. She went into great detail to explain multiple tactics that can be employed as soon as today to keep students up to date! Check them out below.

1. Read to your kids and talk about what it is that they are reading
2. Encourage them to write silly stories, recipes, comics, really anything. Encourage creativity (and kids love silliness!)
3. Cook or bake with them. Measuring, counting, doubling recipes helps with building math skills no matter the age. Intermediate age child- double, triple, or quadruple fractions in recipes… then test it out by actually measuring the multiplied amount. Counting and adding things together is key for younger kids. See how high you can count (maybe even a counting competition!).
4. Most importantly love and support your kids. It is an overwhelming time and even though parents are faced with hard decisions about the upcoming school year, still try to keep things light around the kids. They miss their friends, their teachers, and their normal school life; it’s hard on them too. Try to take a few moments to just breathe in these small moments that you can share with them while they are still at home. School will get figured out, everyone is in the same boat, take time to make memories (some with an educational twist) with your kids.