The current situation regarding COVID-19 provides interesting challenges for those caring for children. With disruptions to daily life (which keep changing), reminders about washing their hands or covering their cough, and this new idea of social distancing there are a lot of important things for them to take in.
We’ve pulled together some resources that we thought may be useful for families during this time.
Government links
- Here is the link to the Australian Government Department of Health advice which is regularly being updated and here are some of their other resources such as factsheets and guidelines.
- For those that it impacts, it is also worth reading the statement from the NDIA about their response. If you are an NDIS participant and you are concerned about your exposure to coronavirus, the Department of Health has a specific hotline to respond to your enquiries 1800 020 080 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Source Kids also has a great article on essential FAQs and key information for parents regarding the NDIS and coronavirus.
Things to do with kids
- Sam Wood is streaming FREE live workouts every Monday-Friday at 9am from the Sam Wood Public Facebook page. All workouts will be kid-friendly so the whole family can have some fun and get moving.
- Playgrounds may be closed Play Australia wants to remind you about the importance of playing outside and that it’s still ok to do so.
- Many parents are choosing to keep their children at home from school at the moment. Scholastic has a great resource to keep the learning going which you can check out here. ABC Education also has some fabulous curriculum-linked resources for Primary and Secondary students and teachers. Our mates at Ellaslist have pulled together a list with a range of different educational resources that might be useful.
- For those with children not yet at school, we found a few lists of things you can do with your kids at home here and here
- Looking for ways to support your children outside of educational resources, The Conversation has an interesting piece on ways to keep kids happy.
How to talk to kids about Coronavirus
- SBS wrote an interesting article about why you should talk to your kids about the COVID-19 pandemic and tips on how to do it that is worth a read.
- Kids Health has a good piece about how to talk to kids about Coronavirus (also has an audio version).
- When explaining the situation older children might enjoy this comic
- This coronavirus social story from the Autism Educator is also useful to explain what’s happening. Mindheart also offers one in a number of languages including Spanish and Italian.
- Here is some general support for parents on how children may react to this situation and how you can respond, tailored to different age groups.
- The Guardian published a family lockdown guide that may also have some interesting insights for you.
Working from Home tips
- Many of us are experiencing working from home for the first time so we’ve found some great resources from Ellaslist, Life Hacker Australia and Kids Spot to help make the most of working from home.
- Here are some tips from Harvard Business Review about how to collaborate effectively when the team is working remotely a new skill we are working to master at Variety as well.
General information
- From Tuesday 17 March Woolworths stores across Australia will begin a dedicated hour for vulnerable members of the community (read more on the Sydney Morning Herald)
For easy reference details for Lifeline and Kids Helpline are below.
Lifeline: 24/7 free counselling service covering crisis support, suicide prevention. Online chat and phone services.
Website: https://www.lifeline.org.au/
Phone: 13 11 14
Kids Helpline: Confidential 24/7 phone and online counselling service for young people aged 5 to 25.
Website: https://kidshelpline.com.au/get-help/webchat-counselling/
Phone: 1800 55 1800
The situation is constantly changing and we continue to review our activities as appropriate. Please refer to the official Variety statement for additional information.
