Traditional summer school, academic boot camps, enrichment programs, traveling sports and park district activities — suburban parents are exploring a plethora of options to help their children make up for a stressful pandemic year of schooling.
While demand for such summer programs is high, there also is tremendous fatigue. Constant switching between remote and in-person learning has taken its toll on students, who also are dealing with pandemic restrictions and social isolation from peers.
To make up for learning loss, many suburban schools are offering expanded summer opportunities.
Barrington mom Doreen Colletti Muhs wishes the school year could have been extended to give students the educational boost they need to fill learning gaps.
“The teachers are going to have to figure that out for next year,” said Muhs, who was among the parents calling for schools to reopen sooner than they did in late January.
But Muhs feels summer is a time to decompress. Her 15-year-old son, Quentin, who’ll be a sophomore this fall at Barrington High, will spend it learning to drive and playing football at a school camp and baseball with a traveling team.
“I didn’t want to overwhelm him with a class,” she said. “There is always that summer slide that the students naturally have. I want him to just grow socially and emotionally.”
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