How much does your 5 yo know?

[SleepingStandingUp]

DS is in reception, nearly 5. School have send our two stories now about coronavirus, very helpful. But we've now done pieces of work going over it, so a leaflet about what it is, what the symptoms are, social distancing etc. A quiz to make sure we understand quarantine and how to avoid it. A picture showing how we keep safe from it. There s other written earlier in lockdown.

Am I being a bad parent thinking they just need to understand the basics - bad germs, keep your distance, wash your hands etc.

He also didn't know about Capt Tom cos he doesn't watchy the news, I don't keep him up to clap although we did rainbows for school and a poster for Capt Tom and a piece on VE DAY and I explained it as appropriately as I could.

Am I just being ridiculous and precious? He's not quite 5 and young for his age

My 5 year old watched the Dr Ranj programme Get Well Soon on coronavirus and that's it. We made VE Day decorations and watched a slide show on Twinkl recommended by his teacher. We don't do the clapping (he's in bed anyway) and nothing about Capt Tom.

He doesn't see the News either. All he wants to know is when he can play with his friends and hug his Granny.

I Suspect we did the same ve day slides. I just see on FB well my 5/6 yo just watched BORIS on telly, my 5 yo asks about Captain Tom every day, my 5 yo wow an entire play about the plight of a corona virus on a tissue (OK I exaggerated that one). And school obv think they should be learning it I feel irrational for not wanting him to know

I don't think you're irrational. A 5 year shouldn't need to be worried about coronavirus. The Dr Ranj programme is really reassuring and I felt that was enough.

Tbh I made more of VE Day because making and looking at decorations gave us something to do. My 5 yr old doesn't understand the concept of war and I don't really want him to!

He knows that we have to wait until the prime minister tells us its OK to go to friends and families house.

Dr Ranj video plus what school told her, never mentioned VE day at all, she hasn't a clue about Captain Tom, but nor have I other than the very basics. She calls Johnson 'the bumhole', which is entirely appropriate.

We gave her the choice about school - explained what it might look like, that there would only be 9 of her class and it might not be her friends etc, she still wants to go.

I'm hoping she remembers very little of it in the long term, and also that it doesn't affect a whole generation of small children growing up scared to touch people.

That all sounds fine to me - I think it's important to give them enough information so they're not wondering what's going on and scared but not so much that they're bombarded and getting paranoid and fearful of eg going out the house. Needs tl be a balance - obviously things are very different for them but I don't think it should be the centre of their lives, brought up in every conversation etc.

My DD has just turned four and I started of by explaining why she wasn't going to nursery anymore, why things were shut.. Because there were some nasty germs about that could make some older people poorly. As things progressed, I explained about not getting too close to other people but just quite matter of factly, not in a way to make her panic. (We were out the other day and she was trying to make friends with a five-year-old from a 2m distance - I was fairly relaxed about it but the other mum was so fraught and saying things like, you know you're not supposed to go up to people, we've been doing this for so long now, you're old enough to understand. I think some children are going to be affected mainly by how their parents are reacting to it).

DD has since learnt the germs are called coronavirus and today she was singing a made up song about it. Oh and it also featured in some small world play the other day. So it's definitely on her horizon but nowhere near the biggest concern in her life which is how it should be. I think they generally pick up on a lot more than you think anyway so it sounds like you have thw right approach.

Mine was taught how to do proper hand washing at school before they closed. I've told him that there is a flu bug that is making people poorly and scientists are trying to make a medicine for it but that we need to help them by staying at home and staying away from people. He knows it probably wouldn't make him very poorly if he caught if but that his Grandparents could get very ill with it. If we go out for a walk he tells me off if he thinks I'm too close to someone! We've made a rainbow for the window and I've explained the significance of that. I don't have the news on in the house as I want to limit his exposure to all this stuff and I haven't made him watch anything like Dr Ranj. He knows that the man who runs the country is that 'Bloody idiot Boris' and he knows that 'bloody' is a naughty word and that mummy shouldn't say it!! We don't have any date for schools returning yet and so I haven't mentioned anything to him about how it might be yet.

Oh and we do go out and clap but that's more of a fun/ social thing (at a minimum 2m distance!) for him.

Hardly anything.

We have watched the Dr Ranj programme which I felt was quite good. He obviously knows that something is going on because school is closed and we aren't doing all the usual things, but he seems to have just accepted things so don't feel the need to go on about it.

This book was really good at explaining to my 5 year old
nosycrowcoronavirus.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Coronavirus_ABookForChildren.pdf

My 5 yo knows it is like a bad cold (I know it isn't, don't worry!!) and that because of that we all have to stay home so we don't catch it or spread it, and that's why we must wash our hands properly. She knows it can be serious and some people have died but that's about all she knows really.

He knows school is closed (he's shielded) so haven't even mentioned the option of his friends going back. And we've had two books explaining it, he says he has no questions. He knows there's a naughty bug out there etc but there was that quiz doing the rounds onfb, als your child - what is corona virus, who is the prime minister, who will you hug first etc. I wondered if I'm shielding him too much of he can't name him lol