Summer Distance Learning?

Distancing learning has had a profound effect on education raising questions for many: Should distance learning continue through summer? Is online education becoming a new normal? 

My belief is that while the opportunities of online learning are endless, these advantages cannot replace the classroom and playground settings where students naturally learn social awareness, self-regulation, and decision making as well as the educational value of learning from others' experiences. 

Summer is a time of play and relaxation important in a child’s growth which should not be robbed by the extension of distance learning. Perhaps we can take this opportunity of distancing to encourage parents to work with children through play, reading, and activity. Practice reading in the pool with foam letters, numbers with hopscotch, cooking together, sorting socks, rhyming on a nature walk, counting the birds in the sky, the world can be the classroom. 

Children need summer and they need activity -  they need play!