While it is quite challenging to believe, we have been in social distancing mode for months now on account of the COVID-19 crisis. While staying at home is safe and helps keep you and your children shielded from the infection, many schools have opened up. Many people are now working from home, which isn’t an option for individuals working in the essential sectors and some other industries.
And the only way many parents can juggle work and their children is to send them to school. Also, children are now becoming increasingly impatient and antsy sitting at home. They are yearning for regular school and playtime and want to spend time with their friends. We at Clovel understand this and know how crucial .
Adjusting To the New Normal
While every responsible parent will have been extremely attentive and patient with their children, allaying their fears, keeping them busy and more, it is now time to transition children back to school slowly. The pandemic threat isn’t over yet, but we are all learning to move into a new-normal mode and need to help our children do the same.
We know how stressful it can be for parents that are doing a balancing act with their professional and personal lives, trying their level best to keep their children occupied and happy within the four walls of their homes. And we at Clovel are committed to helping in every way we can.
Our team of skilled and experienced educators are now helping children that have started attending school, with getting accustomed and adjusted to the new normal. Just as children must get back to school, it’s also time for parents to sit with their children and explain to them in simple terms about how going back to school will be different from what it was earlier.
Some Tips to Transition Your Child Back to School
How you discuss this topic with them can be the difference between them being eagerly looking forward or being unwilling to attend school again. Maintaining positivity and healthily explaining things is crucial. Here are some useful tips from Clovel to help your child transition to school post-pandemic.
1. Be Honest
You must have already discussed the changed situation around us, and they must know about how vital self-isolation is. When you are talking about getting back to school, it’s also crucial that you explain to them that the threat of the infectious disease hasn’t passed yet. Tell them very honestly, however in simple words that the changes we have made will continue for quite some time.
Explain to them that the pandemic was the reason they had been staying at home for months. Also, tell them that things might be different when they resume serving school. Children cannot comprehend these concepts the way they are, on a global scale. It’s crucial that we, as adults, break down these concepts in terms that show them how current situations directly impact them. Some points you can include in this conversation are:
- Why they won’t be at home round the clock now
- How and why hygiene is crucial
- How to maintain social-distancing when they are outside the home
- How to remain well-behaved and listen to what their educators at school tell them to do
- They will attend school for some time as usual and that you will be there at the end of the day when they come back home
Some of these topics sound silly and unrequired even. But keep in mind that children don’t have the logical thinking capacity that adults do. They think differently and have some tiny yet valid concerns in their heads. Some of our uncertainties and fears will have rubbed off on them when they were always at home. No matter how much you try to shield them from things happening around them, they are astute enough to recognise that things aren’t the same. It’s why your approach to them needs to be different as well. You need to explain things in simple terms, making sure that you aren’t getting them worried.
2. Continue Helping Them Build Their Skills
While in self-isolation, you most likely have spent a significant amount of time with your child. Even if you had been working from home for extended hours, you must have made many efforts to help them learn new things and develop new skills as they would have at school.
Now that they will be going back to school, they will have to make some adjustments to the way they have been learning, and that’s something you are keen to keep in mind. You can’t limit the skills to a single place of activity.
Know what the educators at school are teaching the children while at school and make efforts to continue those same developments when your child is at home. Good parenting needs to continue even after your child resumes school, just like before.
You can help your child build these skills in straightforward ways like involving them in activities which they have seen you perform while they were at home for the past few months. For example, try to incorporate your toddler’s counting skills when you are cooking meals for your family. If you need a few tomatoes for cooking pasta, get them to count the tomatoes. When you are baking a cake or making omelettes for breakfast, ask them to count the eggs, etc. these small activities help them stay sharp at an age when they are continually developing various learnings and skills.
3. Continue to Promote Physical Activity
Make it a point to encourage physical activity while at home. Do not hand them a tablet or a smartphone and believe that technology is the best way to have them learn and keep them occupied. Adopt a more hands-on approach while teaching them things, and that means becoming involved with the things they are doing. Encourage creativity, playing outdoors and doing things that will keep them away from the couch or the bed. This will help to mitigate their laziness that might have developed from months of being at home. If you promote activity and make them more active, they will also be able to transition to school life better.
How Clovel Cares
At Clovel, we have made many changes to the way we do things in the COVID-19 era. Our educators have developed new methodologies to help the children cope with all the changes, without alarming them in any way. We have particular hygiene and sanitisation processes in place, and encourage parents to come and check the facilities, so they know first-hand about these changes.
We aim to keep our students safe and continue helping them build skills and learn new things just as before. Children are incredibly resilient, and they bounce back faster than adults. And we are here to help them do that. With the right guidance and support at school at home, the children will feel there is some sense of normalcy in their lives amidst the turbulence around them.
Contact our team today and discuss your doubts and ask questions that you are sure to have. Rest assured that we are taking every measure possible to ensure your children are safe at Clovel. They will learn the way they used to before everyone began to self-quarantine and will spend some fun moments with their peers and our supportive educators. It is one of the best ways to take some of the stress of your shoulders as well.
Clovel has implemented various safety measures to keep children safe and still provide the all-round education they need. It’s our way of ensuring that the children get the learning and interaction and they need to stay occupied, happy and busy during these challenging times.
We at Clovel Childcare and Early Learning Centre, provide a very nurturing environment for children to learn and grow. For any information about our Educational Programs, give us a call at 02 9199 0294 or fill in this contact us form.
Thanks for reading,
Clovel Childcare
1300 863 986
