At Home Places Magazine Summer 2021

Five tips for getting children back to school safely

Written by EMMA TUDOR

sportsforlearning.com

Chances are high that the COVID era has had detrimental effects on your child’s wellness. This is a truth we may not feel comfortable addressing. However, this reality poses an important question: How can I help my child return to normalcy intelligently and safely? Here are five tips for getting your children back to school safely, pertaining to their social, emotional, physical and academic well-being.

Examine how COVID has affected you and your family.

This one might be harder to face than you’d like, but the truth of the matter is that children absorb environmental stressors as much or more than adults do. This fact should be central in your decision-making processes around your student’s return to school and the transition into the postCOVID era.

Does your school have a social and emotional learning curriculum? If so, what does it look like? How can you tie it into your household?

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) needs to be at the forefront of your school’s plan for reintegrating students into schools. SEL teaches students the social and emotional skills needed to help reintegrate into a social setting like a school. Without these skills, students will have a much harder time retaining anything academic. They need these foundational skills to excel, and the COVID era hasn’t been kind to social and emotional development.

Explore what your school is making available to catch up on learning loss.

There is no escaping that your child might have experienced academic learning loss over the past year. Many districts across the nation are extending schooling into the summer months to help compensate for this learning gap. Explore what your district is making available this summer and consider enrolling your child in a summer program.

Do not underestimate the power of play time.

In whatever capacity you and your family are comfortable with, get your child socially interacting with other children and involved in social engagements. Whether sports teams, play dates, acting classes, art classes or summer camps — the choices are endless but the implications are powerful — as children learn endlessly from other children via social observation. Assuming your child has experienced some level of isolation from their peers over the past year means that they have not had the opportunity to properly learn from their peers.

Reflect on observations you made of your child during COVID and distance learning.

Use what you observed about your child during the COVID era to your advantage. In many cases, distance learning’s success hinged on student interest levels. It is also true that you likely had much more face time with your child. Reflect on what you observed in your child. Did the child express an interest in technology or Legos? Being outdoors and exploring new places? Use these observations as a springboard for providing additional opportunities for what the child finds interesting.

Mitigating learning loss is important, and it’s easy to believe that focusing on student academic success might be the first place to start. While academics are crucial and important to student wellness, it’s imperative to focus on social, emotional and physical well-being first. These core pillars of your child’s wellness will promote healthy academic growth.

Emma Tudor is vice president of Sports for Learning, and has enjoyed 15 years in the field of education.