The Kids Will Be Alright.

During this lock-down when most parents are suddenly in the dual roles of their professional work and care-giving, they are quickly recognizing their need for their children’s independence, as they simultaneously seek to zoom-work while keeping their children safe and happy.

Without spontaneous play-dates, birthday parties or hanging out at the local playground, the opportunities to meet and be with other kids have been limited. So it’s natural for parents to feel concerned and have questions.

Are you worried about the effects of mask wearing and physical distancing on your child’s emotional and social development?  

From birth to 6 years, children are sensorial explorers, constructing their intellects by absorbing every aspect of their environment, their language and their culture.

More importantly, young children from 0 to 6 years are psychologically open to join and explore the world in front of them. If that world happens to include masks, pods, and physical distancing, then that is what they will absorb without judgement, whining, or angst ... unlike us adults :)

Children at different stages absorb specific types of learning at a rapid pace, with joy and determination. Awakenings to new interests and capacities are monitored constantly through the well-trained observation of the Montessori faculty. So, here's a question.

Have you been surprised at your child’s ability to adapt to our present situation?

Children are resilient. Maria Montessori, a scientist and a doctor, observed that adaptation allows the child to become a part of a particular environment, as well as a member of the society at a particular time in which the child lives.

In other words, adaptation allows the child to be comfortable with the specific circumstances to which they are born or living through. Children are indeed living in “a particular environment” during this pandemic and continue to experience nature, learn to communicate, be comfortable in the midst of the adults’ chaos and listen to their inner teacher to benefit from the simplicity of life and love they discover on a daily basis in their family.

Follow the Child

Trust their powers of adaptation and, if your child or family is having trouble, remember that adaptation is innate in children and all humans across time and cultures. Just think how children constantly show us the joy that is always part of life. They serve as ever present reminders that we all have the capacity to adapt.

There is no normal, only life in this moment to be appreciated and seized. 

Onwards & upwards.