Parenting during virus: What to know about play dates, education

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed and struggling to keep up with the ever-growing list of cancellations, closures and other news surrounding covid-19, we feel you. Many kids are out of school, many parents are working from home (or at least trying to, because kids are out of school), and we’re all trying to stay clean and keep calm.

It’s a lot, so we put together some of the many questions parents are asking.

School’s out for - who knows how long? How are we supposed to help them learn?

Melanie Auerbach, the director of student support at the Sheridan School in the District, has some ideas about how to keep the kids on track during the hiatus. Her main advice? Make a schedule and stick to it.

“Summer brain is a lack of a schedule, a routine, sleep,” Auerbach says. “They don’t forget how to read . . . . They’ve forgotten how to do school. After winter break, when kids come back, they need a week to reset. After daylight saving time, they need a week to reset.

A change in their regular routine makes a big difference.”

So although it is important to keep up with any work your child’s school has sent home for the break, either online or on paper, it’s even more important to try to keep them on a routine.

Can they have playdates?

For Maha Mahdavinia, a physician in allergy and immunology at Rush University Medical Center, this probably means no more playdates for her 9-year-old and 6-year-old, who won’t be in school. She had been considering letting them have up to three friends at a time in the house, but after watching things unfold in Italy, and now that she has a positive case in her ICU, she is leaning against it. “It’s a disaster, and children are in the mode of transferring it now.”

Outdoor activities where there isn’t much shared equipment or contact should be fine, like riding bikes, she said. Playground equipment, which are being touched by children who may not have the best hygiene, should be avoided. (This is the time to continue to remind them to wash their hands, not pick noses, avoid touching faces.)