Finally summer! Kids and parents may finally get a break from a most unusual school year. Looking ahead as the new school year approaches, we take a look at back-to-school COVID-19 testing, and why it is important.
At the beginning of the pandemic, experts told us that kids were at lower risk of catching COVID-19. But, the reality is that kids are at risk of catching COVID-19. The difference is that kids usually do not show serious symptoms, so it is hard to tell whether your child has just another run-of-the-mill cold, or something else. Many kids do not have any symptoms at all. Right now there is no vaccine for children under the age of 12. The only way to find out if kids get COVID-19 is to test them. If they do have COVID-19, there are health care services available to take care of them, help them stay healthy, and protect family members and communities from spreading it. The fact is that children can transmit COVID-19 when they show no illness at all. Testing kids helps to ensure a safe return to in person learning. Testing kids helps to protect the kids themselves while also protecting other kids, teachers, families and the greater community. Although many people are already vaccinated – teachers, school staff and some students – it is still possible to “catch” the COVID-19. Vaccinations do help prevent catching the infection most of the time, but their most important role is to prevent serious illness and hospitalization. As most parents will agree, getting kids back to in-person learning is really important! Testing kids at schools is part of a larger plan to keep our kids, teachers and communities safe. Many people are very familiar with mask-wearing, hand washing and physical distancing to stop the spread of infection. Although some kids have returned to in person learning, we expect enrollment to be back up to full capacity in the fall. Physical distancing will be harder to enforce when all students fully return to the classroom. Remote learning took its toll on everyone – parents that had to leave their jobs to provide in-home schooling, students not being able to socialize and see their friends, teachers who struggled with trying to keep remote students interested in the material. Prolonged remote or virtual learning can have negative effects on progress. Allowing kids to return to in person school can help with social, emotional and mental health aspects that are negatively affected with remote learning. Back-to-school testing is important for keeping everyone safe, happy, and healthy!
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It often takes a lot to get kids to enjoy vegetables. Trying times at the dinner table can make for high frustration for everyone involved. But, there might be a simple way to introduce veggies – engage them in the experience of a garden.
I grew up with a magnificent garden – we had a salad garden next to our house and a big garden out back where we grew everything else…green beans, corn, peas, potatoes, beets, squash, pumpkins and more. My mother would often ask me to go pick something out of the garden for dinner. I grew up thinking this was a normal activity. I had no idea that most of my friends were eating their vegetables out of the freezer or a can. Cultivating the garden was a family activity. One year, my mother received a rototiller for Mother’s Day – this was not a gift she was especially excited about. That year, our garden doubled in size. We planted so many varieties of plants! I could not get enough. One minute you were burying potatoes, the next minute you were building a fence for the beans. We rarely got into a routine of just eating common vegetables – and this paved the way for my love of all vegetables. Fresh from the garden, they tasted delicious and full of flavor. I always ate my vegetables first. Wait. Does this sound like your kids? Getting kids to eat their vegetables can be challenging. But, getting kids to love them?! I was involved with planting, watering, and harvesting the garden. I had an appreciation of the work that it took to get that food on the dinner table. As a kid, it felt like work. Work that I did not really want to do. But, there was a reward – not eating peas from a can. It was many years later that I understood just what a treasure I had growing up. Having a garden was a financial decision my parents made – nothing more. I imagine that they preferred fresh vegetables but not if that meant twice the price at the grocery store. Seeds cost next to nothing and what we yielded in vegetables from the garden fed us all winter – either through proper storage in our basement or canning. Now, I know that home canning is not for everyone. Who has time for that? Nowadays, you can freeze much of the excess or give it away. Your neighbors will thank you. Friends will happily take extra veggies off your hands. Having a plentiful garden is a gift. Start with a small garden. Maybe try some lettuce, sweet peppers, or tomatoes? Perhaps try some hearty herbs to brighten up a salsa or smoothie? Your kids might complain but, get them involved anyway. Let them pick out the seeds. Water the garden. Harvest the vegetables. And then, watch what happens at the dinner table. |
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