Kids News – A smart way to keep kids learning at home amid COVID-19 outbreak

With the coronavirus pandemic at its peak in several countries across the globe, countries, governments have taken various steps to ensure the safety of its citizens – the biggest one being social distancing. As a result, parents from all around the world are finding it difficult to manage their kids who are at home due to the COVID-19 scare. In addition to the health scare, they are also concerned about the education their children are missing out on during the lockdown period.

How education is being affected by lockdowns in Australia

Let’s take the example of Australia – a country that saw up to 50% dip in attendance (the data was collected from local schools). With schools being shut down, education is taking a toll for sure.

Such a dip only means one thing – there isn’t enough stress on schooling during this time. However, thanks to new platforms that have come forward, parents with children between Prep to 9th year now have the opportunity to home school their kids for free.

Enter, Kids News

Kids News is a free children’s educational website that has started to cater to parents with new and fun learning activities to help them teach their kids from the comfort of their home.

What the platform offers

The publisher of Kids News, Toni Hetherington, recently said that the website would be updated daily during the week so as to give new curriculum-based activities to parents. All the activities on the website have been divided into four groups, each relevant for a particular age group of students. The groups are as follows:

• Prep-grade 2
• Years 3-4
• Years 5-6
• Years 7-9

The president of the Australian Principals’ Federation, Julie Podbury, has said that several teachers were getting requests from the parents to start online classes so that their children could keep learning.

The publisher of the website said that the website repurposes daily news by means of educational stories in the appropriate language for kids. The purpose of this website is to encourage parents to teach their kids by means of activities rather than just increase their screen time. The topics covered will include:

• Health
• Arts
• Science
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Well-being

How parents are reacting to the news

Mother of two (11-year old and 6-years old daughters), Cindi Sommers says that this series of the Kids News could immensely benefit a lot of Australian parents in teaching their kids the right way. She also went on to state that the structures provided by schools are difficult for some parents to follow, given their new at-home routine, but this resource allows the parents’ flexibility while teaching their kids. She added that this resource keeps up with the national curriculum and ties back activities to the curriculum – which keeps things informative.

Cindi praised the resource and its relevancy at this time of the pandemic – a sentiment that is consistent with most parents.

The takeaway

Education should not stop, and Kids News understands that. The way their resource covers over 20 topics while being in sync with the national curriculum makes the job easier for parents. Portals like these have become the go-to platforms for parents who are concerned about their children’s future. And as we look forward to the schools being re-opened, this looks like the best way forward to keep kids informed and sharp.