How You can Maintain your Child's Friendships in Isolation
Maintaining your child's friendships when in isolation isn't easy.
To be honest, it also hasn't been people's first concern (which is completely right, normal and understandable!).
With much of the world 'social distancing' or in isolation from the Coronavirus at the moment, parents are seeing a lot more of their children.
Many are trying to start and keep up with homeschooling, working from home and dealing with the reality of being isolated from support networks, friends and family.
If you need a hand with setting up a routine at home for your young family, grab my free PDF download now!
But with the kids home from school, their schoolwork itself sorted (hopefully, don't get too stressed about it), what happens to their social lives? The skills we have been working hard to develop?
Their ability to support each other?
Their friendships?
As adults we have collectively taken to the internet and/or social media to keep those connections. But what can our aged 5-10 kids do?
Here are a few of my tips around keeping our early education-aged kids' friendships functioning...
while the world copes with this unprecedented pandemic situation.
First of all, organise a regular time to catch up each week or so.
Each week may not be enough, but work it out to personal preference.
Parents are still working, many from home, and so may not be available to sort out (or monitor) a kid's conversation via technology.
It is very important to try and 'book in' a time with the parents of your child's friends, as this is for both your child and theirs.
You both want to maintain your child's friendships and social skills as a result of this.
Apart from the fact that organising a time is simply good manners, it also means you can assume (mostly) that the person will be ready to chat when the time comes.
Compare it to arriving unannounced at someone's house. Will they be in the shower? Will they even be able to talk?
Is their parent struggling today with too many things to do and the isolation environment?
Just keep it regular, and at least text or message beforehand to check if it's OK.
Secondly, use a face-to-face medium for the kids to chat to each other.
If you can access a face-to-face technological way for your child to interact with others, DO IT.
There are many programs like Zoom, Facebook Messenger (it's SO easy), not to mention Facetime, Google Duo and Skype!
It is easier than ever to interact via technology, and many people are using these programs now to do ALL sorts of meetings online.
Many, many of these are free to use and a very simple download which takes minimal time!
Take advantage of them and help maintain your child's friendships in isolation-and make another child's day, too.
Another huge benefit of using these face-to-face calls is that they help children with their social skills so much.
Facial cues are a significant part of social understandings for children.
This continues to build their social learning and they continue to interact with their friends in a 'close-to'normal' way.
Thirdly, set specific topics for their weekly chat.
These work well for kids who need some inspiration on what to talk about, or get tongue-tied when on the phone!
Some people find it fun to have a 'pyjama day' catchup, or watch the same movie and then talk about it via technology.
This works well for kids too! Giving them a common theme may just help them learn, talk and interact a whole lot better than they normally would.
Lastly, send picture messages with a shared interest.
My daughter and a friend have the same dolls. They've been dressing them up to 'go out', taking a picture and sending them to each other with a note about where the dolls are going (via us parents, of course).
This has been a really fun thing to do-and a great way to keep the kids connected in a less immediate way.
How have you been staying connected as a parent during the isolation in this Coronavirus pandemic?
Do you think these ideas might work for you? Why?
Please share!
