We all know that this past year and a couple of months have been very difficult.

In reality, this may be the most difficult thing that most of us have faced in our lifetime, and that’s really saying something.

For some, the lockdown was a good thing and I think our future is going to be drastically different going forward. I think we’ll see a lot of new benefits coming on the other side of all of this.

Many people picked up some new skills and have become more self-sufficient. Many people have been able to relax more.

Some have wondered what sort of effect all of this will have on children, but I think it all depends on how you perceived the lockdown and what you did with it.

My family, for example, made the most of a bad situation. We got to spend more time together and get creative in the things that we could do. We spent a lot more time outside as well.

Another thing is that we read more books and according to a study, many children actually have been reading for longer periods of time, and have been reading more difficult books. This is something that will drastically help them in the future.

Literacy skills have actually improved in the pandemic, with children reportedly picking up more challenging books and getting lost in fiction to combat isolation, a study from the UK has shown.

With schools often closed, many more pupils began to enjoy reading again—with 56 percent of young people saying they enjoyed reading either very much (24 percent) or quite a lot (32 percent).

The National Literacy Trust’s Annual Literacy survey of 4,141 pupils across the UK found reading for pleasure dipped at the beginning of 2020, and recorded its lowest level of self-reported reading enjoyment since 2005 (48 per cent of children).

But this changed drastically with three in five children saying reading made them feel better during the lockdown.

More than a third also said reading helped them when they felt sad because they could not see friends or family.

Elementary school children, in particular, improved on their reading levels by focusing on more demanding texts.

While it’s definitely sad that children had to have a year of their childhood changed in such an extreme way, I’m glad that many have made the most of it.

Sources:
GNN