Explaining isolation to pre schoolers

[EleanorSaysFork]

I have an autoimmune condition and I am pregnant, therefore needing to self isolate. My three year old DS has a cough so we have already been self isolating, though thankfully it seems to be a normal cold. He loves nursery, play dates and all our usual activities. He has good comprehension, is articulate and will soon start asking to go to his usual activities. I am starting to think about age appropriate sensible ways to explain to him why we are staying at home and not mixing, especially as time goes on. I have seen a great video for school aged children but an explanation clearly needs to be far more basic for a three year old. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

I'm not sure but also have a toddler so following with interest

Something along lines of if people are feeling a bit rubbish because of a silly old cold then they stay cosy at home. Just like us two. And we need to stay cosy until we're quite better.

That sort of thing?

In our case I'm thinking more of social distancing in general, no play dates, play group or seeing anyone else for months - how can I explain that in a constructive way?

We have had some talks about "The Germ" which doesn't affect children, so he is totally safe, but might make Mummy or Daddy a bit poorly for a while if we catch it. All the grown ups are going to have to take it in turns to get sick so everyone isn't all sick at the same time, and this will make sure there are always lots of healthy grown-ups to look after everyone. The takeaway message that has stuck seems to be that he is now planning to nurse us when we are ill "although you'll have to just drink water because I'm too small to make tea".

My dd is 3.5 we have told her there are some germs called coronavirus that are making people poorly so we are staying in and not going to nursery, softplay etc. To make sure we dont get poorly.

She seems to understand, accepts regular hand washing and is making a pile of pictures for her nursery friends which she will give them 'when the coronvirus germs have all gone'!

We have just said ‘the virus will make you sick’ and related everything back to that. He’s just 4 and struggling with the long-term view (aren’t we all).

My four year old loves an episode of Storybots called "How do people catch colds."

Storybots is a children's program from the US which is both educational and entertaining. I love it :-) It might be on Netflix, but they have recently made this episode about viruses free on youtube.

This episode has been one of his favourites for ages. But it's turned out to be very helpful now, to explain what covid-19 is and why we have to cover our mouths/stay home when we are sick/etc. A two year old might not get much out of it, but older 3 or 4 year old would enjoy it.

Our little girl just turned three and she’s finding it hardest out of the three of our children to understand. I think it’s because she only has one concept of the future and it’s “tomorrow.” She’s been a little more accepting since we explained that they won’t be open tomorrow, but they will be later in the year and we will go when they are open. She knows we can’t do park trips and swimming etc because they are literally shut and we talk about the positive things we can do. As for the virus itself, we’ve explained that it’s really hard to know when a person has the virus and that’s why everyone has to stay at home. Because if my dd or her sister got it, they probably wouldn’t even know it but older or iller people could get really poorly. We also FaceTime family and she can see everyone is in the same boat as it were. How’s your little one holding up?

My son is more vulnerable as he is a full time wheelchair user. I have talked to him and his twin sister about it once or twice. He is aware something is up. They also know that we are all in quarantine as a extra precaution that is all.
But they are still quite little so their level of understanding is very limited. I find drawing pictures helps however. Whenever we go on our daily nature walk at a local park, I point to the social distancing posters. Or I say “Please avoid people”. Other than that I have not really told them anything. I do not wish to worry them further.