Resources for Kids to learn about Coronavirus

April 12, 2020

Resources for Kids to learn about Coronavirus

Parenting is different these days as we have witnessed in plenty.  In addition to trying to keep the kids busy, provide three healthy meals a day, understand their home-schooling requirements and constantly remind them to wash hands, we also want to educate our children on the pandemic and why everything we are doing is important to keep ourselves and the world safe – in a way they can understand and relate to!  Just the length of that sentence should give us a clue as to why parents are going stir crazy (and we didn’t even get to taking care of ourselves, our elders and our work!)

If your children are visual and/ or young enough for the picture book age group, we’ve rounded up a few resources that we hope will help you explain and talk to your kids about the coronavirus epidemic.

Axel Scheffler, the illustrator behind the beloved Gruffalo books, along with a team from his publisher Nosy Crow, has released a free information e-book to explain coronavirus to children.  You can download it here. 

If your kids prefer the comic book format, NPR editor and illustrator Malaka Gharib, along with expert input, has published a free comic that you can download here.

If children are wondering how their favorite characters are dealing with the quarantine, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler are providing an update,

“The Gruffalos stayed in the Gruffalo cave.

The Gruffalo’s child did her best to behave.”

 You can read all about the other characters here.

 For parents, we found this article and references from NY Times to be helpful in talking to children about the issues at hand. 

We also want to share two books that we’ve found helpful in our household in talking about germs and human bodies with our children.

A Germ’s Journey by Thom Rooke & Anthony Philip Trimmer, available at Amazon.

100 Things to Know About the Human Body, Usborne.  This title is available through the Usborne site.  If that is harder to get, any book on the Human Body (Time Life, Magic School Bus) may be other good options as we find children are eager to learn more about their bodies, especially as they sense the importance of this topic from grown-ups.

We hope this provides you some resources that you can reach for to talk with your children.  Their world is equally different and they are looking for guidance and knowledge in the same way as grown-ups.  If you have other resources that you are using, please let us know or leave in comments below. 

Also, we are here to help.  If we can help with book suggestions and other reading resources for your kids and you, we’d be glad to.  Please reach out.  Stay safe and well!

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