Amidst all of the school closings, never ending news stories, press conferences, and social media posts, many of our kids remain confused, scared, curious, or all of the above. Taking a second to talk to your kids about Coronavirus can ease some of the fear and help to make this time away from school healthy, relaxing, and maybe even productive (Where are those chore lists at parents? :) )
There are billions of resources out there, but the following article is really beneficial for talking to the elementary kiddos in your family. It will give you exact phrasing to use which is helpful to have when there is probably so much else on your mind.
Talking to our older students who maybe are able to more readily access information on the Coronavirus is a bit different. There's a lot of information out there, but what's accurate and unbiased?
1.Encourage your kids to use websites like .org, .edu, and .gov sites to gain information about COVID-19. The most up-to-date, accurate information can always be found at cdc.gov.
2. Remind our teenagers and young adults that with information comes A LOT of opinion.
3. Remember: social media scrolling can get you down. Encourage some tech free time.
4. Practice social distancing. Just because we are out of school does not mean we should all gather together (because germs). In this very tech-saavy world we have so many options to keep us connected.
5. And as always, don't throw the hygiene out the window.
Wishing you all a healthy couple of weeks off school. If your students need a session or you need resources please email me at sschomaker@odinpublicschools.org
Virtual high fives and hugs to all the students,
Miss Schomaker