# data[].attributes.body
online art workshops

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
COMPREHENSIVE ART BUSINESS CURRICULUM
for serious artists

Your journey as a professional artist will never be the same with Sentient by your side! We know how to pinpoint the root problems and bring you the best solutions: a comprehensive art and business training curriculum.

Let's learn to achieve long-term financial success with bite-sized modules and action plans. Develop the skills and confidence to succeed in a competitive market and watch your career as an artist flourish.

LEARN ABOUT BUSINESS SCHOOL

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sentient Academy | Career-Focused Online Art Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Your journey as a professional artist will never be the same with Sentient by your side! We know how to pinpoint the root problems and bring you the best solutions: a comprehensive art and business training curriculum. Let's learn to achieve long-term financial success with bite-sized modules and action plans.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Pick from 1000+ KS2, KS3, GCSE & A Level courses based on exam board specifications. We've condensed the content to what you actually need to know for your exams. Your teacher can also create classes and set homework for any revision topic on the study platform creating the perfect lesson plan.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Free Homework & Revision for A Level, GCSE, KS3 & KS2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Free revision for your GCSE & A Level exams. Join over 6.5 million students learning 2x faster across 250+ exam board specific A Level, GCSE & KS3 Courses.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
mindSpark Learning | Customized Experiences for Modern Professionals

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Online Toolkit - mindSpark Learning | Customized Experiences for Modern Professionals

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We're here to support you while school looks different.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Online learning and instruction offer their own particular benefits and challenges at any time-here we suggest some resources and activities that may help those suddenly faced with teaching online.
Download the PDF version.
Click on each item to jump directly to the resource described or scroll to browse.
Writing Together: Ten Weeks Teaching and Studenting in an Online Writing Course
This book narrates the experience of an asynchronous online writing course (OWC) through the dual perspective of the teacher, Scott, and a student, Diana Gasiewski, who participated in that OWC. Both teacher and student describe their strategies, activities, approaches, thoughts, and responses as they move week by week through the experience of teaching and taking an OWC.

You've probably heard that audiobooks serve as a useful resource for struggling readers. Classroom teachers sometimes use audiobooks to help students gain access to material that's too difficult for them to read independently. Audiobooks help novice readers build vocabulary, boost pronunciation skills, and develop fluency. What you might not have considered is what audiobooks offer proficient readers.

Book-to-film adaptations provide great ways for children to explore their favorite books in new ways.

Read on to see how you can use comics and cartoons with children and students.

Children and students need to feel that they own their space and the learning that takes place in it.

Encourage family relationship building by participating in family activities during breaks from school.

The following resources from NCTE and ReadWriteThink.org provide more ideas for fostering family literacy.

Nothing tests your knowledge like a crossword puzzle! But did you know the format of a crossword puzzle can be an effective learning tool, too?

If you are spending time with friends and family, in person or virtually, work together on these activities!

Since a majority of our students are engaging with social media outside the classroom, it makes good sense to integrate it into learning.

Breaks from school offer wonderful opportunities for families, caregivers, and out-of-school educators to help improve reading and writing. ReadWriteThink.org's Parent & Afterschool Resources and NCTE provide many resources, activities, and tools.

Reading and writing texts online are basic skills that students need to be literate citizens in today's world. Teaching with blogs provides the opportunity to engage students in both of these literacy activities, and the strategy has the additional benefit of enabling students to publish their writing easily and to share their writing with an authentic audience.

Take a few minutes and send someone a handwritten letter. Then, invite your students to write letters using these resources from ReadWriteThink.org.

Zines are small-circulation, self-published works of original or appropriated texts and images. Here are some resources from NCTE and ReadWriteThink.org to get you started.
Voices from the Middle
Lesson plans with specific digital tools mentioned to complete projects/tasks.
English Journal
The authors examine photovoice projects created by students and teacher candidates who explored issues of gender in response to a young adult novel and co-researched that process.
English Journal
This article describes blogging implementation in ninth-grade pre-advanced placement language arts classes to support strong writing practices. The author found that blogging empowered high school authors to craft worlds of digital expression where they pushed each other to become stronger writers.
Voices from the Middle
Recommendations of digital classroom tools from The Nerdy Book Club.
Voices from the Middle
This article describes how a middle school teacher uses technology, within an otherwise traditional writing workshop, to facilitate differentiated mini-lessons, confer with writers, and offer writers opportunity for peer response. In the end, she balances ways of streamlining workflow digitally, while maintaining the integrity of writing workshop and offering greater differentiation to meet the needs of writers in her middle school classroom.
English Leadership Quarterly
In this interview, Chris Bronke, teacher and CEL member, discusses useful digital tools for conferring.
Voices from the Middle
This article offers a model for organizing collaborative learning outside of classroom time. It describes affordances and constraints of the digital space and the process used. It also offers insight to how teaching in online spaces looks different from face-to-face instruction and how to support students. Includes screenshots that show very specific ways to set up a class module along with discussions of what to consider as you construct this.
English Journal
The authors worked with preservice teachers and youth in a juvenile detention center to pilot a curriculum focused on critical engagement with online text. Discussion of a specific lesson plan that involves analyzing Instagram posts.
English Journal
The setting and characters of To Kill a Mockingbird came to life in new ways when eighth graders in Georgia explored virtual reality apps as they studied the novel.
Voices from the Middle
While this specific lesson was classroom-focused, it could easily be adapted to digital work, especially related to current events.
English Journal
As an alternative to the traditional research paper for an English class, a digital narrative assignment positioned students as multimedia storytellers.
English Leadership Quarterly
Discussion of a specific lesson plan and digital tools for sharing peer responses to writing.
Language Arts
This Perspectives on Practice column focuses on using student audio recordings to help them craft their writing. Students use audio recorders of their own choice (like a smartphone or other kind of device) to record their own thoughts as they draft projects.
ReadWriteThink.org RESOURCES

ReadWriteThink's mission is to provide educators, parents, and after-school professionals with access to the highest quality practices in reading and language arts instruction by offering the very best in free materials.

Parent & Afterschool Resources

So just how are you supposed to read aloud? Or help kids write? Get quick and useful suggestions from the experts.

Not your everyday calendar, here you can find important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, all with related activities and resources that make them more relevant to students. View by day, by week, or by month.

Want to help kids and teens with their reading and writing skills, but not sure where to begin? We've got engaging, step-by-step activities-just pick one and get started!

Kids and teens should read and write even when they are out of school. Why is this so important? Check out this flyer.

ReadWriteThink.org ACTIVITIES K-12

Act out a story after reading it. Work together to create a script and make costumes and props. Then invite others to watch and hear your story!

Choose favorite rhyming songs or nursery rhymes then replace the rhyming words with seasonal themes.

Help children use favorite photos to write a homemade memory book.

Boost vocabulary by taking an imaginary trip into space. After a lunar "landing," children return to Earth with a galaxy of new words.

After reading If You Give a Moose a Muffin, have a "Muffin Party"! Children will write invitations, follow a recipe, and enjoy sharing their homemade muffins.

Share a fun book about staying safe and then talk about real-life safety issues before writing a letter to someone in your community who can help.

Children will learn their address and phone number to help keep them safe.

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and you're surrounded by brilliant shades of green! Observe and collect sensory images from nature and use the sights, sounds, smells, and textures to create original nature poetry.

In this activity, children go on a hunt for places where they can read and enjoy books: on a family road trip, at the pool, at the doctor's office.

Work together, create a bingo board that can be played while walking around town, going to the zoo or a museum, or traveling on a vacation.

In this activity, children write short everyday notes to remind, plan, request, or compliment others.

Find three fun online games that are designed to help children learn to recognize letters and how they sound.

These activities will have children reading signs, logos, brand names, and other words all over their homes and communities.

Children love books that rhyme and to create their own rhymes. It's a fun way to learn how words sound similar to one another!

With a piece of paper and a pen, kids can learn anywhere! This activity gets kids writing, looking closely at letters, and learning some new words in any room of the house.

Encourage children to connect words and pictures by having them write their own captions for family or magazine photos.

When you plant a garden, involve children in the process by writing down questions and observations on the garden's growth in a garden journal.

From dishes to doors, find shapes all around you while strengthening important reading and math skills.

Make learning how to spell words a little "wild and crazy" by ditching the pen and paper and using unique materials that will make your kids really smile while they're having fun.

Children incorporate materials from outdoors with paints or crayons to create pieces of art to display on their clotheslines, fences, or porches for a neighborhood art show.

Want to visit a museum without leaving your computer? Virtually dig for famous historical artifacts from around the world found in the British Museum.

Get children excited about writing and descriptive language by creating yummy descriptions of their favorite candy.

Use recipes to help children practice reading and writing step-by-step instructions. Have them sample the results to see how they did.

Use shape and theme poems-poems that look like the things they describe-as a fun way to introduce children to poetry.

Children learn how to make a convincing argument-an important skill in school and in life.

Have children make cards describing their favorite characters from the books they have read.

Using published comics and cartoons as examples, children can create their own while playing with images and language.

Children can interview family members and make an illustrated timeline of the most important family events and memories.

In this activity, children look closely at living things in their natural environments and then make books about what they see.

Children will draw on their knowledge of story structure and fairy tales to write their own.

Can't make it to a zoo? After reading a book about apes, observe animal habits and habitats using one of the many webcams broadcasting from zoos and aquariums around the United States and the world.

Playing board games or card games can be a fun activity, so why not make your own?

Sort through your junk mail and talk about what you find for a fun literacy activity before recycling it!

Children watch the nighttime sky come alive as they read a book about fascinating elements in the night and write a poem/story about the things they learn!

Let children explore an interesting subject-themselves. An online tool will teach them to summarize and organize information as they write.

While enjoying a book that features a journey, children write postcards from the perspective of the main character for each stop along the trip.

Shake up children's reading by introducing them to new and fun formats for storytelling.

After reading about historical figures and other important people that have changed the world, children choose someone that they consider to be "amazing"-either someone they've heard about or someone they know-and create a book page that highlights this person.

Create a treasure hunt out of word-puzzle clues hidden around the home or yard.

Everyone loves getting a greeting card, especially if it's handmade. Make a funny or thoughtful greeting card or invitation with pictures and a poem, a joke, or a riddle.

Kids will love Hink Pinks-word puzzles that use two-word clues to lead to a rhyming solution. Try one and get hooked yourself: Obese feline? Fat cat!

Brainstorm popular expressions with friends and family, then explore their meanings through game play and writing/drawing/cut-and-paste activities.

Explore fairy tales told in both old and new ways and use an online tool to help children create their own "fractured" version of a fairy tale.

Have children explore the different parts of mystery writing by making a puzzle about a favorite book. They can then invent and write their own mysteries using the online Mystery Cube tool.

Let children practice using different types of words in a fill-in-the-blank-story game before making their own word list for a magnetic poetry set.

Encourage children to spend a little time thinking and writing about just what makes a hero and who their personal heroes might be.

Visit a museum or art gallery (either online or in person) with children and teens, helping them find inspiration for a story based on a piece of art that they particularly enjoy or relate to.

After reading a book or magazine, children and teens can choose a section and transform it into a "found poem."

Before seeing a film based on a book, classic or contemporary, children can learn about filmmaking and create their own scenes based on their favorite moments from the book.

Invite young adults to write letters to classmates, postcards from travels, and emails to family and friends.

Writing stories that imitate a certain genre or type of fiction allows children to explore a book they love by imagining new twists for their favorite characters and plot lines.

This activity invites children and teens to explore various careers and then write about what they might want to be when they grow up in a blog.

Kids learn about weather sayings throughout history while writing and illustrating a book for younger children.

Explore how music can have an emotional impact on a scene in a movie, then help teens write and film a scene of their own.

Invite teens to explore issues that are important to them and then write a script and film a video public service announcement.

Work with teens to learn about family members' significant personal experiences by interviewing them and sharing their stories with the rest of the family.

Engage teens in this activity in which they use photographs to examine and write about courage on a blog.

This activity can help teens create picture books that a teen caregiver can then share with children.

This activity will help pairs or groups of teens explore a hands-on approach that lets them become both comic book writers and comic book artists.

In this activity teens are encouraged to explore their reading history as they remember books they liked reading as children and then revisit these old favorites.

Work with a teen to create a wiki with everything people should know about the teen's top ten favorite songs-and your favorite songs as well! Then invite friends to add their favorite songs too.

Teens can take part in the process of building family histories by recording the stories, or memoirs, of family members.

In this project, teens create autobiographies, adding music selections to their life stories.

This activity gives teens an opportunity to write reviews on the movies, television shows, music, restaurants, and books they love-and hate!

Using a variety of artifacts, mementos, and technologies, teens can create an electronic scrapbook of their most important moments in high school.

In this activity, you can discuss with teens how they can tell the "good" characters from the "bad" ones by watching for clues that the movie makers have left.

This activity will help teens create a professional résumé that effectively presents their skills and talents to future employers.

FROM OTHER EDUCATION ORGANIZATIONS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Resources for Virtual Instruction and Online Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Online learning and instruction offer their own particular benefits and challenges at any time-here we suggest some resources and activities that may help those suddenly faced with teaching online. Download the PDF version. Click on each item to jump directly to the resource described or scroll to browse.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Timely information for teachers, students, parents and caregivers to help learning continue beyond face-to-face environments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Khan Academy is a nonprofit providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Our interactive practice problems, articles, and videos help students succeed in math, biology, chemistry, physics, history, economics, finance, grammar, and many other topics. Khan Academy provides teachers with data on how their students are doing so they can identify gaps in learning and provide tailored instruction. We also offer free personalized SAT and LSAT practice in partnership with the College Board and the Law School Admission Council. Our resources have been translated into dozens of languages, and 15 million people around the globe learn on Khan Academy each month. Want to extend your learning beyond YouTube? Practice what you’ve just discovered for free: www.khanacademy.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
"kids yoga" "yoga for kids" "yoga for children yoga story for kids" "children's yoga" "yoga adventure for kids" "kindergarten yoga" "preschool yoga" "kids me...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
YOGA | MINDFULNESS | RELAXATION FOR KIDS! Screentime that gives kids SUPERPOWERS! ⬇️ D O W N L O A D T H E C O S M I C K I D S A P P ⬇️ 🍏Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cosmic-kids/ 🛍️Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cosmickids 🖥️ Desktop (great for teachers!): https://app.cosmickids.com/ 📺 Roku: https://rb.gy/44r8d -------------------------------------------------------------------- Why watch on the App?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The thought ended almost before it started: "This is so overwhelming." It was all one teacher managed to type before she stopped short, vexed into silence, perhaps, by the sheer size of the problem. In the pregnant pause that followed, undoubtedly, every teacher tracking the unspooling thread-about the dizzying, rapidly escalating viral crisis that was closing schools across the country-recognized the chasm they were all facing as well, and took a deep breath.

In the next few hours, over 500 teachers joined two Facebook conversations about teaching during the coronavirus pandemic, spilling out their concerns and anxieties: What will we do if the schools close for months? How can I shift to online learning if we're closing tomorrow, or even in a few hours? How will special education students be cared for, and IEPs administered? What about children who have no internet access, or who will be required, as Keith Schoch thoughtfully noted, to "become de facto babysitters" for their brothers and sisters. "There is no digital divide, but there is a digital abyss, and America's rural poor are living at the bottom of it," said Anne Larsen, with devastating concision. What if, in the end, the school systems decide that online learning is working just fine, and never reopen?

The panic was all perfectly understandable.

But there were plenty of teachers in the mix who had weeks of crisis experience under their belts by that time-several in Hong Kong and Italy and the state of Washington, for example-and others who had long careers in online and distance learning. In the end, too, there were many fantastic, highly creative teachers providing strategies as fast as the obstacles appeared.

At the highest level, a shift in mindset would be required-even the most optimistic educators conceded the point. There are plenty of strategies and tactics we're covering at Edutopia-and we'll continue to-but here are the crucial emotional and psychological scaffolds that our audience agreed would be needed to teach in this new paradigm.

Expect Trial... and Plenty of Error

Start by being reasonable with yourself. It is, in fact, impossible to shift to distance learning overnight without lots of trial and error. Expect it, plan for it, and do your best to make peace with it.

"I can tell you, now that we're in week 7 of online learning, that much of what you will do will be trial and error," wrote Stacy Rausch Keevan, who was teaching in Hong Kong. "Don't stress about that-it won't do you any good. For my middle school English and humanities classes, I'm offering the same lessons I would normally do live, but in smaller doses."

Acknowledge the Extraordinary

Reset your baseline. We're all operating in the shadow of a global pandemic, and it is disorienting and limiting. Business as usual is unrealistic.

The real "points to consider" are not "the strict adherence to 'regular' conditions and norms," wrote Amy Rheault-Heafield in a reply to a question about how to structure distance learning like more typical learning experiences, "but how to provide a rich experience to all learners who are now without 'traditional' teachers standing beside them in classes."

So while you should try to provide "meaningful activities," cautioned elementary teacher John Thomas, "we should remember that on short notice-and because many of us have limited PD utilizing these tools-we can't tackle everything immediately. In other words, we should give ourselves the time and the permission to figure this out."

Reduce the Workload (for Yourself and Your Students)

If your district allows it, you should plan to do less. Students won't be able to work as productively, anyway-so if you can't scale back you'll be sending them work they cannot do-and your own life and family need added care.

"Feedback from students and families over the last 10 days in Italy is 'less is more,'" commented Jo Gillespie. "Consider that parents are trying to work from home, and siblings are vying for computer and Wi-Fi time. Try Google quizzes using Forms, a reading log, some short live sessions with teachers and classmates, maybe vocabulary extension, maths and geometry problems (but not too many). And that's probably enough."

And Keevan, the teacher in Hong Kong with weeks of experience, confirmed that time and distance play funny games during a crisis: "What would normally take you one class period to teach in the classroom will probably take you twice as long."

No Person Is an Island

Humans are social animals. Working from home, or worse, from quarantine, is isolating and often depressing for both teachers and students.

Make a concerted effort to speak to other colleagues and trusted professionals to provide emotional and psychological context to your work. Teaching at this moment is extraordinarily hard, and you'll need the virtual company of people who are experiencing what you are.

And don't forget to "reach out to students as often as you can," said Keevan, who still teaches classes live despite a (slightly inconvenient!) 13-hour time difference. Or you can facilitate peer-to-peer communication. John Thomas assigns pen pals in his first- and second-grade classes, so that kids with no internet can feel like they belong.

Everyone Thinks They Can't-Before They Can

Some degree of pessimism and self-doubt comes with the territory. Teachers in the Facebook thread advised more perspective-taking and being more patient with yourself: You know how to teach, and you will figure this out in time.

"We are in week 7 and I have three children of my own at home," wrote Salecia Host, a teacher in Tianjin, China, reflecting on the arc of her emotional response to the crisis. "Just take it day by day. It gets less overwhelming and more routine."

Try to remain calm-though you'll have a few moments where that goes out the window-and keep plugging away: "Being open-minded and flexible is key," said Kaz Wilson, who also works in China. "Everyone thinks you can't until you pause, talk it out with folks who are doing it, and know that you'll get through it."

Mind the Gap

Your work will be hard, but there are students facing more severe challenges. Students with no internet or no computer will need support, as will those with learning differences or other circumstances that make distance learning especially difficult. Supporting these students was on almost everyone's mind-it came up dozens of times in the Facebook thread.

"I'm in Italy. Our schools closed a few weeks ago without any previous warning. We shifted to online immediately. It is hard and exhausting," admitted Eleonora Borromeo, before providing a ray of hope. "Equity is an issue. Assessment is an issue. But the students are doing their best and giving us the strength to go on."

Solutions from our audience of teachers focused on the old analog approaches: paper-and-pencil tasks, workbooks and activity packets that can be mailed home, and updating parents and students via phone calls daily.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Through a Pandemic: A Mindset for This Moment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The thought ended almost before it started: "This is so overwhelming." It was all one teacher managed to type before she stopped short, vexed into silence, perhaps, by the sheer size of the problem.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By Gene Beresin, Executive Director

Posted in: Hot Topics

Topics: COVID-19 + Family Mental Health, Culture + Society
You can also read this article in Spanish or Chinese. Gratitude to the MGH Chelsea Healthcare Center and the MGH International Marketing Team for making this possible.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 has created anxiety and uncertainty for all of us, including children and teens. During stressful times, no matter what their age, children want to know three basic things:

Am I safe?

Are you, the people caring for me, safe?

How will this situation affect my daily life?

As parents and caregivers, we need to talk with our kids about COVID-19 to address these concerns. Below are seven tips on how to engage with kids of all ages to help them maintain emotional stability during the crisis, followed by guidance on how to tailor conversations for kids at of different ages.

Guidance for Helping Kids of All Ages
1. Control Your Own Anxiety
Many of us are worried about the current situation and living with uncertainty isn't easy. Yet, anxiety is "contagious." Your kids will know that you are nervous even if you try to hide it. So how can you keep your cool, despite your own worries? Here are some things that may help:

Get the most credible information you can. Focus on fact-based, helpful information about the virus. Avoid endless social media streams, which can be filled with misinformation, and constant breaking news headlines, which can fuel your concerns. Stay up to date with notices from your child's school, your state, and your city or town. Anxiety is best contained if you know the guidelines for protecting you and your loved ones, including hand washing, cleaning surfaces, use of sanitizers, whether you or your family need to be in isolation, and what supplies you should have at home in case you are quarantined.

Talk with folks who support you. This could be your partner, a parent, a friend, a spiritual leader, or another trusted adult you can confide in.

Take care of your physical health. Get a good amount of sleep and exercise and use other ways to reduce anxiety, such as meditation, yoga, listening to music, or watching a TV show.

If your child asks if you are worried, be honest! They will know if you are not telling them the truth. You can say things like: "Yes, I'm worried about the virus, but I know that there are ways to prevent its spread and take care of the family if one of us gets sick."

2. Approach Your Kids and Ask What They Know
Most children will have heard about COVID-19, particularly school-age kids and adolescents. They may have read things online, seen something on TV, or heard friends or teachers talk about the illness. Others may have overheard you talking about it. There is a lot of misinformation out there, so don't assume that they know specifics about the situation or that the information they have is correct. Ask open ended questions:

What have you heard about the coronavirus?

Where did you hear about it?

What are your major concerns or worries?

Do you have any questions I can help you answer?

How are you feeling about the Coronavirus?

Once you know what information they have and what they're concerned about, then you can help to fill in any necessary gaps.
3. Validate Their Feelings and Concerns
Kids may have all sorts of reactions to the COVID-19. Some may be realistic, while others exaggerated. For example, if grandma is in a nursing home, they may have heard that older adults get sicker than healthier, younger individuals. You need to be able to acknowledge this valid concern, but can reassure them that grandma has the best medical care to manage the illness. Alternately, a child may be terrified that animals will get the virus such as a beloved pet. Again, take these feeling seriously, but then reassure them. We can treat pets as we would other human family members to protect them from a possible infection.
4. Be Available for Questions and Provide New Information
This outbreak is likely to last a long time, so one conversation won't be enough. At first, your child's emotional reactions will outweigh their thoughts and concerns. As the outbreak continues and your kids get new information, they will need to talk again. Let them know they can come to you at any time with questions or worries. It's also a good idea to have regular check ins, as they may not approach you with their fears.

When you update your kids with new information, don't assume that they fully understand everything you say. Ask them to explain things back to you in their own language. This is an excellent way to know if your kids understood what you meant.
5. Empower Them by Modeling Behavior
An important part of prevention is hand washing, coughing or sneezing into your sleeves, wiping your nose with tissue then discarding it, trying to keep your hands away from your face, not shaking hands or making physical contact with others, and wiping surfaces with material that is at least 60% alcohol.

Be sure to demonstrate these behaviors first, so your kids can have a good model. It's a great idea for you to wash your hands with young children singing "Happy Birthday" twice (about 20 seconds) so they know what to do on their own. Wiping surfaces as a family, after dinner, helps everyone feel part of the prevention effort. For older kids and teens, give alternatives to high fives or fist bumps, like elbow bumping, bowing, or using Mr. Spock's "live long and prosper" Vulcan salute.

When you see your kids practicing good hygiene praise them for it! Reinforce that they are not only taking care of themselves, but also helping to prevent the spread of germs to others.
6. Provide Reassurance
Your kids may worry about how you're going to get through this. Remind them of other situations in which they felt helpless and scared. Kids love family stories, and these narratives carry a lot of emotional weight. Try something like: "Remember that hurricane when a tree fell on the apartment?" or "Remember when the pipes burst in the house and we were flooded?" Remind them that you have been through challenging times before, and though everyone was distressed, everyone also worked together and got through it. Reliving these kinds of narrative helps the whole family to build resilience and hope.
7. Don't Blame Others
In stressful times, when we feel helpless, there's a tendency to blame someone or become more fearful, even when there is no evidence to support these reactions. This can create social stigma and be harmful towards certain groups of people - in the case of COVID-19, particularly people of Asian descent, and people who have recently traveled. The last thing we want our kids to do when frightening events happen is to cast blame on others, either intentionally or without meaning to.

When you ask your kids what they know about the virus, listen for anything that discriminates against a group of people, and address it in your conversation. And make sure not to reinforce negative stereotypes in your own actions and conversations.

Guidance for Kids By Developmental Level

When you talk to your child or teen, it's important to use words, phrases, and examples that are developmentally appropriate. Here are tips for helping preschool kids, school-age kids, and teens and young adults.
Preschool Kids (Ages 2- 6):
Preschool kids are more in tune to and affected by parental emotions than older kids. For them, especially, be sure to stay calm around them. In addition:

Turn off the TV, computers, smart speakers when they are around. They will hear things or see images that are potentially scary.

Be careful in talking about the situation with other adults or older siblings around them.

Younger kids may need a bit more TLC and cuddles than older kids. If you're concerned about transmitting illness, then sitting close, or perhaps sleeping in the same room is comforting.

Make preventive measures such as washing hands or wiping surfaces a playful game.

School-age Children (Ages 7-12):

Kids in first to sixth grade can understand more about a contagious disease. Explain that the germs causing COVID-19 are like ones that cause a cold. Remind them that these illnesses can spread easily, but that they can also be prevented, which is why we need to wash our hands, use tissues, and use alcohol wipes.

Kids this age thrive on routine. Try to keep to daily schedules as typical as always, even if you are quarantined at home. Explain that the reason you stocked up on a month's supply of food and are not going to school or work is to help your community by not spreading the disease to others.

Younger school-age kids cope with their fears through play. They may play doctor or use a Lego set to create a hospital helping people. This is a normal way for them to manage their anxieties including repeating their games over and over.

Some school-age kids will become more clingy and demanding. Such "regression" is a way of expressing fear. This is not the time to simply tell them to "grow up," even if the behavior is frustrating. They may need more time with you - reading to them, watching a TV show together, drawing, or playing.

Turn off the TV other digital media as much as possible. School-age kids may not understand everything they hear and see on the screen. For example, if there are reports of outbreaks or deaths on the other side of the country, they may not know how far this is or that germs cannot spread to their house from distant places.

Adolescents and Young Adults (Ages 13 - 18+):

Teens and young adults have likely heard a lot about COVID-19 and its potential danger. They are old enough to understand how it spreads, preventative measures, and future risks. Have open conversations, beginning with open-ended questions about what they know, what they are worried about, and how they are feeling.

Kids this age are mature enough to watch the news with you or go online and explore trusted sites to learn more about the disease. Sit with them while viewing and have conversations about what they see and read, and how the illness may impact their lives.

Teens and young adults may be help you shop for supplies, play with younger siblings, prepare meals, and do other tasks to prepare for possible quarantine. Including them in the effort to protect the family helps them feel valued, and this empowerment lessens anxiety.

No one knows at this point how serious the impact of COVID-19 will be. Living with uncertainty is not easy. However, we can help each other become more resilient, emotionally stable, and as physically protected as possible through a carefully planned means of engaging with our kids in this time of crisis.
Last updated 18 February 2021
Share on Social Media

Share Tweet

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
7 Ways to Support Kids and Teens Through the Coronavirus Pandemic - MGH Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As parents, we need to support kids and teens through the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to help them maintain emotional stability. Here are 7 tips.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The day Anya Ailsworth's school announced it was closing, it was also the opening night for a one-act, student-directed play in which she was supposed to be on stage doing what she loves most.

A vocal performance major when she heads to college this fall, she and her mom, Brady O'Mary, mourn that loss and worry about the cancellation of her upcoming choir concerts, father-daughter dance, talent show, prom, pitch night for her entrepreneurship class and even graduation.

"It was just a flood of the possibility of all these things being canceled and I remember looking at her and I just didn't know what to say," O'Mary says.

O'Mary is among the many anxious parents of high school seniors waiting for the other shoe to drop on the seniors, who were born in the shadow of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"It's not only the loss of the human connection and the feedback that they get from their teachers and their peers, and the loss of the experience, but it is the loss of the memories because they won't have them," she says.

We turned to a few experts to get some advice for parents and their seniors who are finding their plans for senior year totally turned upside down.

College concerns

For many students, this is a critical time to make their final decision on their college by the May 1 deadline (some schools have pushed back that decision deadline so make sure to check). In fact, many families planned their final round of college visits over Spring Break to do it. Those visits, as well as admitted student days and other events, were all canceled.

The good news, says Patrick O'Connor, a Detroit-based college counselor and author of College is Yours 2.0: Preparing, Applying, and Paying for Colleges Perfect for You, is that many colleges already have virtual tours online perfected over the years for students who couldn't get to campus under normal circumstances.

He suggests families look for those tours, as well as for social media groups of admitted students to get to know future classmates. In fact, he says, students might even get to know classmates better through social media than if they were actually on campus.

Financial aid is another big concern. With the huge stock market fluctuations, parents might be worried about their college investments, he says. If the coronavirus has changed anything for families, such as a layoff or big losses on investments, O'Connor says to immediately call the financial aid office.

"These are the folks that want to do everything they can ethically and legally to have you come to college," he says. "... Financial aid will do everything in their power to make sure it's a good, affordable investment for you."

He says any decreases in financial aid packages would be the last resort for colleges "simply because their interest is to bring a strong diverse class to campus and they know that the best way to do that is to support them as much as possible."

He also says if circumstances have changed for families, it is not too late to begin the college search again. Many colleges actively look for students throughout the summer months, he says.

Students also can consider a delayed start to college; the admissions office can help with those discussions, O'Connor says.

To students, he has this advice: "We are all in this together. While this takes away some opportunities for community with some, it creates new opportunities for community with others. That's probably going to be centered more on family than friends as we hunker down for the next few weeks. This is an opportunity to create some very important moments with people you will not be with much anymore. As a senior, you are leaving and heading off to college. This is as good as a chance as always to create good moments with your family and build on that foundation before you head out."

Memories and mental health

Parents are sharing through social media theirs and their seniors' sadness over possible loss of moments they've looked forward to for four years.

O'Mary assured her daughter it's OK to feel everything she's feeling and that together, students and parents will figure out the path ahead.

"It's your choice and it's your reality. I have no doubt these kids will do great things. ... They will be OK," O'Mary says. "... I'm hoping our education system will shift a little bit more to be about the journey and the experience as opposed to the grade or the award, because they will, right or wrong, have to figure out what that journey looks like because it's very different from what they thought it was going to be."

"Good will come out of this. That's theirs to write. It's their story," O'Mary says.

What O'Mary is doing with her daughter is just what the experts suggest all parents do.

"Let them feel the feelings they have. It is a legitimate loss. It's OK for them to feel these feelings and to express them," says Aileen Kelleher, a licensed clinical social worker in Chicago. Find her on Instagram at @ aileen_family_therapist.

Also, have faith in their ability to create new milestones and memories; capturing this moment is its own milestone, she says.

For parents struggling with loss of memory-making moments, Kelleher recommends feeling the loss. "Don't feel like you must put on a happy face," she says. How you react models for your kids how to grieve, she says.

Veronica Ursetto of Integrative Perspectives Counseling, suggests working with your senior to see if they have interest in brainstorming ways to include the most important people in a virtual private graduation ceremony and even talk virtually with their peers to create a makeup prom. "Often, teenagers are full of ideas about how to get what they want, they just need an adult to support them," she says.

As many parents know, keeping a teen cooped up in the house is so much different than for a toddler. Kelleher suggests parents give teens input into what their schedule looks like, while remembering they still need help in creating a consistent routine and to help keep their spirits up.

In that schedule, make sure they build in a lot of movement throughout the day as well as FaceTime and calls with friends, she says.

Warning signs

"It's really normal for your teen to experience feelings of anger, sadness and worry," Ursetto says.

"We are going through a shared loss as a community, it's important to use our strengths to build each other up and support our teens through using this time to explore new interests, connect with family and make their own meaning," she says. "If you are having a hard time with this transition, imagine your teen with limited life experience trying to understand why life changes one day."

Kelleher suggests parents keep their eyes out if their teen's behavior starts getting destructive. Other warning signs include self-harm, rough behavior, hoarding, a loss of cheerfulness and an inability to function as they normally would, she says.

If they are unable to complete their e-learning work or attend dinners with the family, it could be time to reach out for help, she says. Many therapists are offering teletherapy during the pandemic.

One thing to remember, Kelleher says, is that seeking a therapist is nothing to be ashamed of as your child and your family navigates all of these changes.
Follow Chicago Parent on Instagram.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Help Your High School Senior Through COVID-19 Pandemic

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The day Anya Ailsworth's school announced it was closing, it was also the opening night for a one-act, student-directed play in which she was supposed to be on stage doing what she loves most.