5 Tips to Keep Your Kiddos Calm During the COVID-19 Pandemic

With all Alachua County schools closed until April 15, kids will be at home with parents working from home. Whether you think it or not, your child is most likely confused and scared about the quick changes due to the coronavirus outbreak. While it’s important to stay informed about the pandemic, here are a few tips on how to keep your kiddos calm durring the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stay positive!

It’s easy to lean into the fear of the virus outbreak, but when discussing the sickness with your kids, try to focus on the positive. Have a conversation with your kids about their fears, and try to ease their minds.

Set an example

This can be as easy as not passing down paranoia to your children. Instead of rushing to grocery stores to hoard toilet paper, talk to your family about what you are doing to stalk up. This also means sharing why we are taking these precautions.

Get outside

The CDC and President Trump are both highly suggesting social distancing yourself from others. Taking daily family walks outside can be a great way to get the stir-crazy jitters out of the kids and yourself.

Work out as a family

Just because you’re trying to limit time outside the house doesn’t mean your kids should be cooped up inside all day. YouTube has several family-friendly workout videos that range from 10-to-20 minutes. Yoga is a great way to stretch and get the family together for a few minutes out of the day and change up the monotonous schedule of staying at home.

Help your children take up a new hobby

Obviously, this will be limited to things that would work in and around the house. Helping your child pick up a new hobby can be fun for them and you. They can try their hand at easy baking recipes or get artistic with supplies around the house. The key is to use things around the house; extra string for friendship bracelets, extra flour for cakes or loose markers and papers for around the house crafts.

Whatever it is, the idea is while educating your family on what’s happening around the U.S. and around the world, it’s important to do anything you can to make your children feel calm about what’s going on.