September 3, 2020

Grandma to the rescue for remote learning: 'They're quite a pair'

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When your first grader is distance learning, someone needs to supervise. For Oliver Levitan, that someone is grandma.

Leslie Stallone-Levitan, the mom behind the popular @nochillpreschooler on Instagram, had given up her job to supervise Oliver's learning. The Stallone-Levitan family recently moved from Los Angeles to St. Louis, Missouri, to be closer to family.

She was offered a two-day a week job teaching writing and thought she would need to turn it down. "Remote learning for a six-year-old requires full-time adult supervision. My mom stepped in and volunteered to oversee Oliver's remote learning for the two days each week, so I could take the job," Stallone-Levitan told "Good Morning America.

Her mom, Candace Stallone, is not even retired yet. She works for the 100-year-old family business, a local tuxedo company called Stallone's Formal Wear.

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"There's been a giant learning curve," Stallone-Levitan told "GMA." "When she started, she didn't know how to Zoom, manage all the links, or move from one class to the next. And her grandson was no help; [as] he didn't know how to do those things either. So the two of them were quite the pair."

Leslie Stallone-Levitan
Oliver Levitan attends first grade remotely with the help of his grandmother.
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But, all in all, she said, school is going well. Grandma Candace Stallone "loves spending time with him and watching him learn new things," she said.

Since her post went viral, Stallone-Levitan has heard about lots of other grandparents also stepping in to help out with schooling. "One particular woman said that her mom retired early, so she could continue to work full-time as a single mother," she told "GMA." "So sweet."