April is Month of the Military Child and we want to honor our little warriors and their families for being resilient and cooperative with their state’s stay-at-home orders to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
We know these orders can be extremely stressful for families, especially those with children. We also understand that there may even be children who are experiencing more stress than others due to not seeing their friends or visiting other family members.
We want to remind you that feeling extra stress and anxiety under these unusual circumstances is expected and normal. However, with open communication, it can be manageable.
In this newsletter, we want to provide you with some resources that can help you talk to your children about the coronavirus and hopefully help them understand why it’s important to continue to wash their hands and practice social distancing for a while.
To help explain WHAT is a coronavirus and HOW it spreads, we found this simple animated
video
to be extremely useful in explaining it to children in an engaging and calming way. We also found a great article from PBS Kids called
“How You and Your Kids Can De-Stress During Coronavirus”
, which helps teach families and their little ones how to practice deep breathing. The article also links them to cute PBS Kids videos to help them learn the importance of being calm and how to belly breathe with characters like Daniel Tiger and Elmo. Because, of course, they would know better than their parents!
Other useful resources we found to help manage social distancing and staying inside are these online and education sites, which provide a valuable list of virtual activities and events to help keep children engaged:
For Cohen Veterans Network (CVN) clients, military parents, and the veteran community, CVN has created a virtual community room called
CVN Presents
, where veterans and military families can stay connected during this pandemic.
Also in April, we have organized a few
FREE virtual events
(registration required) for our clients, including:
- Cohen Clinic Virtual Social Hour - April 21
- Online Creative Workshops with the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company - April 15, 22 and 29
- Virtual Mindfulness and Gentle Yoga - April 15 and 29
If your family and children are still having a difficult time during this pandemic, please remember we are open and servicing clients through telehealth. To schedule an appointment, please call our office at
240.847.7500
.
Stay healthy and we look forward to continuing to be of service to you.
