Perth, April 28 2020
Day 37 of #Covid19 #socialdistance
Today we talked about the COVID19 virus again. We made a home-made book of drawings that we use to tell the story of COVId19, of the things we can still do in our day, of how to prevent contagion, of what kind of emotions we are experiencing.
We followed the Australian Psychological Society's advice to talk about what's happening with children, address their questions and reassure them.
Indeed, after this much time of having her life disrupted and suddenly changed, our daughter is starting feeling unwell at times, asking about whether she'll ever see her friends again and going through moments of deep distress during the day.
So we drew some comics again about the story of this virus, concluding that as the virus does not travel on the phone, if we keep seeing our friends through the phone the virus will disappear because there won't be any more chances of contagion.
We had a good chance to realise:
- how quickly the infection could spread in the hypothesis of 1 person infecting 2 people: 2 -->4; 4-->8; 8-->16 and so on.
- why grandma can't go back home
- why library and other facilities where we share things with others are shut
- why we have to stay at home and speak through the phone with friends
We used our puzzle and cards about the continents, looked at where we live, where our relatives live, where is China - where the pandemic started - and talked about travelling by plane.
We then drew four things we can still do despite the pandemic using Peppa Pig as inspiration: jumping in muddy puddles when it rains, going on a walk with mum, going for a bike ride with dad, making pizza with grandma (who is still stuck in Oz and living with us).
After then, we drew our emotions that we experience most during our days in isolation.
We collated all pages in a book, that we read at bedtime. I had to point out that not all bats spread COVID19 as my daughter got worried about the bats in our local Zoo... never give anything for granted with children!
Here the link to the Australian Psychological Society documents to help coping with isolation, including useful information about children.
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