The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) can be extremely stressful for children and their families. Fear and anxiety are overwhelming feelings, and can cause strong reactions for everyone. Keeping this in mind, we wanted to organize a range of resources and supports.

Our amazing school nurses are working daily with Health Services surrounding changes and what they can do to support our Condon School and community. If you have any questions and need to contact them, their emails are listed below.

Thank you Nurses Ariel Symone, Holly O’Brien, Nancy Garland and Michelle Clough!

• Ariel Symone, School Nurse, asymone@bostonpublicschools.org

• Holly O'Brien, School Nurse, hobrien@bostonpublicschools.org

• Michelle Clough, School Nurse, mclough@bostonpublicschools.org

Social-Emotional Apps and Games

• Online Feelings Games (For K2-5 students) : PBS compiled a number of games that help children practice how to interpret and express feelings.

• Bouncy the People Trainer (For K0-K1 students): "Bouncy the People Trainer is an interactive story that teaches social and emotional skills. Activities include identifying how kids would feel in certain situations, reading and listening to a story, seeing a video, making music, answering questions, and creating a piece of graffiti art to hang in their room" (Common Sense Education).

• Mindful Powers (for K-5 students): Mindful Powers is an iOS app for kids to learn and practice mindfulness. Each story within the app prompts the user to play a game focused on mindfulness, and helps them build skills throughout.

• YouHue (for K-8 students): Helps students build self-awareness skills by identifying and recording their emotions.

Talking to Your Child about Coronavirus

Below are a number of resources for talking to your children about coronavirus and its impacts:

• Talking to teens and tweens about coronavirus (New York Times)

• Psychological tips for parents and adolescents' emotions (HeMOT)

• Talking to kids about the coronavirus (Child Mind Institute)

Understanding the Media

It's difficult for young people to understand what news to believe, and what is misinformation. This article on CommonSense Media outlines ten different videos for students in K-5 helps students of all ages learn about how to navigate social media and the news cycle responsibly.

Help students understand how COVID-19 relates to them with this Kid's Health article.

Physical Activity and Movement

• If you're a caregiver able to work from home, here are some resources to keep your children active:

  • GoNoodle Indoor Recess has dozens of in-home, structured activities for your children.

Taking care of your body and your mind during this time is critical. In order to be present for others, caregivers need to make sure they do what they can to keep themselves from feeling emotionally and physically drained. "That is why it is a necessity, not a luxury, to take time to take care of yourself so that you can recharge and feel empowered to continue supporting and caring for your child" (Kid's Health).

Tips for Supporting Mental Health (taken from the Center for Disease Control (CDC))

• Take breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including social media. Hearing about the pandemic repeatedly can be upsetting.

• Take care of your body. Take deep breaths, stretch, or meditate. Try to eat healthy, well-balanced meals, exercise regularly, and get plenty of sleep if possible.

• Make time to unwind. Try to do some other activities you enjoy.

• Connect with others. Talk with people you trust about your concerns and how you are feeling.

Mindfulness Resources

• Mindshift (available in the app store): Uses strategies based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help you relax and decrease anxiety levels.

• Headspace (available online, and on phones for iOS and Android): Headspace provides access to guided meditation, and thousands of articles and podcast that focus on mental health and wellbeing. Headspace is currently offering free access globally.

• Insight Timer (available for iOS and Android): Navigate past the subscription screen to start a 7 day trial that gives you access to thousands of guided meditations, podcasts about how to cope with stress, and more.

• Calm.com (available for iOS and Android): Access a free trial to calm.com. This app includes resources for higher quality sleep, mindful meditation, relaxing music, and more.