Socializing while Social Distancing

​Socializing plays an important role in healthy childhood development, but with many schools limiting or eliminating in-person instruction due to the coronavirus pandemic, students risk missing out on crucial interaction with teachers and peers. Add to this general social distancing guidelines and most kids will barely leave the house at all this fall. But never despair! You can help your kids socialize while protecting them from dangers both online and off. We present ten great ideas for your kids to socially engage while staying safe at home.

1. Video Calls. Socializing does not need to be in person. Video conferencing offers the easiest and most straightforward method for kids to socialize. FaceTime, Zoom, Google Hangouts, and similar services offer quick, remote connection to almost anyone. While we all miss in-person interactions, seeing and talking with friends provides socializing benefits even online. (Not to encourage helicopter parenting per se, but if you prefer more oversight regarding who your child video conferences with, Zoom provides options for hosts to record sessions for later replay.)
2. Games. While many associate online gaming with violent content and toxic culture, many excellent, family-friendly online games offer hours of socially-enriching and even educational content for students. Minecraft encourages creativity, imagination, and (for advanced players) coding logic. Link up with a friend and you have a trifecta of entertainment, intellectual stimulation, and socialization. Jackbox Games offers a large, growing collection of online multiplayer programs similar to traditional parlor games involving trivia, puzzles, and challenges. If one person buys a Jackbox game and plays it using Zoom’s screenshare function, a friend can join in using the smartphone app without having to buy the whole game. Want an experience as close to in-person as possible? Consider Tabletop Simulator, a PC program available through Steam that allows players to literally move virtual game pieces. (Or is it virtually move literal game pieces?) The program supports games ranging from traditional board games like Monopoly and checkers to complex tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Students will have to practice the same social skills and good sportsmanship they do at home, however, as in Tabletop Simulator one can literally flip the virtual table! (Or virtually flip the… never mind.)
3. Movies and TV Shows. Have a Netflix, Hulu, or Disney+ account? Your student can watch movies with their friends and distant family using the screenshare feature on Zoom or Google Hangouts. (If the video quality is poor, they can also play the movies on separate devices while still watching each other on Zoom or Hangouts. They just have to get good at hitting ‘play’ at the same time!) If you want to encourage more educational social time, you can steer your student towards one of the excellent nature documentary series on Netflix, such as Our Planet, or the musical historical drama Hamilton, currently streaming on Disney+. Such films and programs can provide your student and their friends enriching and relevant content to discuss in the absence of the usual classroom banter, and may spark a life-long interest in a new field.
4. Books. Similarly, book clubs can be a great way for kids to socialize and expand their intellectual and imaginative horizons. With libraries shut down, you might encourage your child to explore (with appropriate supervision) resources like Open Library or Project Gutenberg, perhaps challenging their friends to see who can find the coolest old book for a Zoom book club. You can also check to see if your local library has ebook offerings; many even provide access to free audiobooks.
5. Creative Collaboration. Teamwork makes the dream work, even if the dream team is social distancing. The internet provides myriads of resources for your student to create art, stories, games, and more with their friends. Zoom and Google Hangouts allow for document-sharing and a “white board” for typing or drawing on. You can also take advantage of a wide range of free, open-source creative programs. Musical kids can collaborate with their friends using music software like Audacity, taking turns recording their instrument of choice and hearing how they sound together. Sites like Code Share could facilitate your student coding a game with their friends, while joining forces using a video editor like Open Shot might kick off an Oscar-winning film career.  If William Shakespeare could write King Lear during a plague lockdown (probably), who knows what your budding artist and their friends might create?
6. Culinary Collaboration. Does your young foodie miss eating out with friends at restaurants? You can partly replace that feeling with the internet and a little ingenuity. Your student could plan a dinner date with a friend a week or so in advance, and then they could each order a special ingredient and have it shipped to the other. Perhaps your kid can share their favorite salsa, while their friend sends over a fancy ramen they have been wanting to try. They can prepare and eat the food over Zoom, enjoying each other’s reactions to the new gastronomical experience. For an even more memorable moment, your student and their friends might want to organize a “miracle berry” tasting event over Zoom. Miracle berries contain a chemical compound that temporarily makes acidic, sour, and bitter foods taste sweet, with pickles tasting like candy, lemons tasting like honey, and dark chocolate tasting like milk chocolate. Your crew can order the berry tablets over Amazon and taste the various foods together over video conference, reveling in each other’s amazed faces and pondering together the nature of the human sense of taste.
7. Citizen Science Projects. While your future Nobel prize-winning physicist might be missing their hands-on school lab this year, they can still find their place in the wider scientific community by submitting data for important scientific work. You can submit photos of plants and animals to study biodiversity, document light pollution in cities, or even help astronomers identify interstellar space dust in NASA photos. Learn more about taking part in some of these massive online collaborations at the National Geographic website, and teach your student that they will never be alone in the society of the curious.
8. Pen Pals. While it may seem a tad old school, prompting kids to write physical letters to each other is a creative method of encouraging both socialization and composition skills. Perhaps spice up the exercise by encouraging your student to create a secret code or cypher with their friend (building logical reasoning skills) or take up calligraphy (an old but elegant practice encouraging discipline and patience). Your child could also personalize their epistles with vanity stamps, supporting the postal service and possibly sparking an interest in philately!
9. Writing to Government Representatives. In a similar vein, students can write letters to their senators and congressional representatives at the state and federal letters or even to the President of the United States. This exercise helps students develop a sense of connection to the greater American community. Encourage this by telling them that representatives are much more likely to read handwritten letters than any other kind of communication. Often representatives will send a letter back, and, although it is often (though not always!) a form letter, this communication will likely increase your child’s sense of civic pride and responsibility. This practice may prove especially important for students who are frustrated by national events but feel voiceless being too young to vote. Follow this link to locate physical mailing addresses for your elected officials.
10. Join a Learning Pod with iLearn Academy. Not only can group learning improve standardized test scores, but it also provides a sense of academic community that your student may be missing this fall. iLearn Academy offers both in-person and online learning groups. We thoroughly sanitize our classrooms at our physical location in Glenview, IL after every session, with all participants required to wear masks and students spaced out with physical partitions. These classes are also small enough to limit risk of exposure, with just a few students at a time. Nevertheless, these sessions can provide real school socialization to tide our students over until in-person schooling is safe again. Similarly, our online platform allows students to see the teacher and each other’s faces without masks as they go over material together like they do in brick-and-mortar classrooms. While students use class time to go over homework and review test skills, they also get a chance to share things going on in their lives with peers as they do in school classrooms, providing an important social and emotional outlet in these strange, disruptive times.

What other ways can kids socialize while staying safe and social distancing? Do you have any favorites? We would love to hear your opinions and experiences, as well as help you join an online or in-person learning pod. Please feel free to visit our website at www.ilearnacademy.net, call us at 847-834-0791, or post on our Facebook page. We hope everyone has had a great summer, and we look forward to helping all our students safely and effectively adjust to the new school year.