There is some debate about mask-wearing throughout the country, but most medical professionals agree that it is a simple and effective way to minimize the transmission of airborne germs. The City of DeLand has mandated mask-wearing while out in public as have some entire states around the country. As an adult, you’ve noticed how strange wearing a mask in public can be. Your face may get warm, your voice is muffled, and you may feel a little bit claustrophobic, not to mention how difficult it is to read the expressions of people you come in contact with. Now imagine you’re a 6-year-old kindergarten student experiencing all the same sensations. 

We have been welcoming students back to school at St. Barnabas since our founding in 1971. For nearly 50 years we’ve ushered in each school year in a similar fashion, but this year is different than anything we’ve experienced before. 

Are you running out of ways to keep your child entertained before kindergarten starts this fall? Many families have been home with their children for so many months in a row that they’ve run through all of their best ideas. As summer sets in, the state of Florida is oppressively hot which makes going outside a real drag unless you have a pool or access to the beach. 

We’re halfway through the calendar year, and so far 2020 has proven to be quite a doozy. The COVID-19 Pandemic has thrown us all for a loop and it was followed up with civil unrest and a lot of public conversation about racial inequality and police brutality. We are still wading through uncharted territory, and no parenting tips could have prepared us for what has unfolded. To begin, it should be said that you are doing an excellent job, and the fact that you’re interested in parenting tips to help you move through this season shows how much you care. None of us has all of the answers for how to navigate life’s complexities, but all of us can do our best. 

The year 2020 will go down in history as a year of transformation. People, families, and industry were forced to change the way we do life as well as the ways we do business. As teachers and school administrators, we’ve done our best to maintain as much normalcy in your children's education as we could over the last few months but we’re well aware that most of the heavy lifting was left up to you, their parents. 

In March, all of our lives changed in a big way. Schools closed for the rest of the year and parents like you were sent scrambling and forced to balance your parenting and professional lives 24 hours a day. No parenting tips could have prepared us to spend quite so much quality time cooped up with our families. We still don’t really know what to expect in the coming months. But one thing is for sure, after nearly two and a half months of playing school at home, you’re now staring down the barrel at two more months of playing summer camp counselor and you'll need even more parenting tips to get you through.

This spring semester has been one for the books. None of us will ever forget the year that our classrooms were empty, and your homes we’re overflowing! Hopefully, by this point, you’ve gotten into a groove with your children’s school, but by now they may be bouncing off the walls a bit as they’re missing their friends and their routine. There’s only so much video gaming that can substitute for actual activity. It may be time to implement P.E. 

This is a scary time for all of us, and our children are feeling it more than we might realize. Whether or not they understand the things being said in hushed tones around them by the adults in their lives, they can feel the energy we’re all exuding, and in many cases, it’s not positive. Although your preschool children lack the language skills to really comprehend the detail of what’s happening around us, they’re experiencing everything you are. 

We are all spending a lot of time at home these days, but that doesn’t mean we have to stay inside. Your kindergarten child is likely already showing serious signs of cabin fever, as are the rest of us. So the types of activities you engage in during the day can relieve the stresses of the whole family spending your days and nights in such tight quarters. There’s one childhood activity that has the potential to be fun, active, and outdoors. 

How’s everyone doing out there? These are strange times we find ourselves in, and we are all learning to cope with a temporary new normal. Many parents in our community are feeling the brunt of this shift in our culture as they learn how to balance working from home, parenting, and teaching school all at once. We want you to know that we see you. We see how hard you’re working and we’re grateful for the way you’re stepping to help us teach your kids when we can’t be with them.