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How to Teach Children about Masks and COVID-19

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Let’s talk masks!

Back in April of 2020, when the world began to panic, everything was shutting down. Toilet paper was a thing of the past and you could buy a single mask for $50 on the black market because no one could find any in stock. Well, back then I was lucky. I already had a box of Walgreen masks stored away with my first aid and medical equipment. Somehow, that box migrated to my mini van where it sat upfront by the driver’s seat. I’m not even sure how it got there, and I honestly remember thinking multiple times, “I need to bring that back into the house.” But I didn’t.

And it got STOLEN!

Yes. Someone stole my box of masks right out of my van. Nothing else of value was taken, just my super cute (but cheap) sunglasses. But honestly, there is a possibility I may find those sunglasses lost under a bed in my house and they were never really stolen.

The masks, however, were stolen. I like to think of some poor, desperate person walking past my soccer mom mini van and spotting the box of masks. Surely the situation they were in made the temptation too great. Surely they needed those masks more than me…

But I’m married to a cop, and the cynical side of me also sees those masks being sold off one at a time on the internet for a fortune.

Anyway, back then we didn’t know how long this pandemic would last. Fast forward a few months and you can buy masks easily at your favorite shopping venue: Walmart, Old Navy, Target, Amazon… masks are everywhere! They are required at school, restaurants, stores, even some cities have mandated masks.

Last Saturday morning while driving to work, my mind began to wander. The roads were clear and the world seemed peaceful, even though life hasn’t felt peaceful in quite some time. I began to wonder if I would be assigned to another COVID-19 patient to care for that day at the pediatric hospital where I work.

As I drove, I also wondered about the long term psychological effect of COVID-19 on children. With mandatory masks at school and the scary element of an unknown “sickness” they hear adults talk about; I like many of us, feared for their future. My eight-year-old nephew told his mom not too long ago that he was scared of masks. He was scared to wear one, and seeing people wear them scared him as well. I know my nephew isn’t alone in his fears. Many of us have asked, “what long term impact could this pandemic have on our little ones?”

If their is one thing my career has taught me, it’s the resilience of children. They really are remarkable when facing obstacles.

Several years ago I remember placing a nasogastric tube on a girl who was about 8 years old. A nasogastric tube is a tube inserted through the nose that goes all the way down the throat and into the stomach. Unfortunately the first attempt was unsuccessful and I had to torture her a second time, in order to get the tube placed. She cried and fought and I thought for sure I would be placed on the top of her hit list. I grabbed a teddy bear to give her as a prize for being brave, and when I came back to the room and handed it to her she smiled and asked me, “What’s your name again?” I responded telling her that my name is Elizabeth, and without hesitation she said, “Then I’m going to name this teddy bear Elizabeth!” She then told me I was one of her favorite nurses that had cared for her.

I don’t have all the answers on how our children will be effected, but I have hope that our children will emerge from this pandemic just fine. Maybe even stronger than before. But as parents, it is up to us to help them through it.

That morning in the car, I began to concoct a family lesson on how to teach my children about COVID-19 and why we are wearing masks. I wanted my children to start school understanding the “why’s” behind it and help them through any fear they may be feeling because of COVID-19.

The lesson exceeded my expectations! My girls giggled and laughed throughout the lesson, but they also expressed fear I hadn’t known was there related to the pandemic. I was surprised by the insightful questions they had. I loved how they were able to grasp the concept of COVID-19 and masks. The lesson went so well I thought I’d share it with all of you!

Below is my lesson plan on how to teach children about masks and COVID-19. It is geared toward elementary aged children, but even my three and a half year old did great with this lesson! Some of the discussions can be adapted for older kids. The lesson is made up of two object lessons with accompanying talking points. A printer friendly copy of the outline along with the printable picture cards are free!

Enjoy!

Lesson Plan: How to Teach Children about Masks and COVID-19

Printable Lesson OutlineDownload
Printable Picture CardsDownload

Objectives:

  • Teach children the purpose of wearing masks
  • Help children feel comfortable with masks
  • Dispel any fear that may be associated with masks
  • Help children understand how masks work

What you will need:

  • One mask for each family member
  • Spray bottle filled with water (set on spray and not stream)
  • Printable Picture Cards (see printable- you can print them, or show them off of the computer screen)
  • Small prize or treat (optional)

Introduction:

Explain that you will be practicing wearing masks during the lesson and ask each family member to put their mask on.

Optional: Tell the children that whoever keeps their mask on for the entire lesson will earn a small prize or treat.

Note: If any child has fear or anxiety associated with masks, do not force it. Have them hold their mask instead.

Discussion:

  • Why do we wear masks?
    • Listen to the children’s answers and help expand on their answers.

Note: Do not just say “because of the sickness”. Teach the children that the sickness is called COVID-19. Giving the illness a name will help children understand the “unknown” and help them realize that all sickness isn’t bad.

  • Explain that there are many different kinds of sicknesses we can catch that are different from COVID-19.
    • Ask the children if they remember a time they were sick in the past. Discuss how they felt (sore throat, stuffy nose, stomach ache, throwing up, etc.)
    • Explain that getting sick is not fun, but our bodies actually can become stronger by making it easier to fight off another sickness in the future. (for older children you can talk about our immune system).
    • What makes COVID-19 different than other sicknesses?
      • COVID-19 is making some people more sick than usual.
      • For younger children, telling them that it’s making people sicker may be all they need to hear. Below discusses going into more detail if needed.

Object Lesson #1: People often wear gear to protect themselves

Show the different Printable Picture Cards (free) one at a time. With each image, ask the children what the people are wearing to protect their bodies in each particular sport.

  • Answers:
    • Soccer= Shin guards
    • Football= Helmet, shoulder pads, thigh pads, neck collar, mouth guard
    • Biking: Helmet
    • Rollerblading: Knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, helmet

Talking points:

  • Just like in these pictures of people wearing special equipment to protect their bodies, we are wearing masks when we go places to protect our bodies from COVID-19.
  • The amazing thing about wearing a mask is that it doesn’t just protect our own bodies, but we are protecting other people around us from getting COVID-19 as well. We can help stop the spread of COVID-19!
  • COVID-19 is spread when someone who has it coughs or sneezes. Tiny droplets come out of their mouths and noses. These droplets have germs that can get others sick. (Pretend to cough, as you do so, spray the bottle simultaneously by your mouth facing outward like all the droplets came out of you. Explain that when people cough the droplets and germs are even smaller so we can’t see them).
  • When the person who is sick wears a mask, those droplets get trapped inside their mask.
  • What if the sick person doesn’t wear a mask?

Answer: That’s why we all wear masks! If you are wearing a mask, then the droplets get trapped on the outside of your mask so you don’t breathe in the germs.

  • If everyone is wearing a mask then it is like double protection.
  • If you have members in your family that are at an increased risk for complications from COVID-19, add this to the discussion.

Note: Many children may express fear while discussing this. Let them talk about these fears. Reassure the children that if they wash their hands and wear their masks that they are protecting themselves and their family. Discuss how as a family you will do the best you can, but if your family ends up getting COVID-19, that you are a team and will get through it together.

You know your children and how much detail you can add to this discussion. Some children will be comfortable talking about how COVID-19 is hospitalizing some individuals and that some people have even passed away and returned to heaven because of it. For other children, that will be too much detail. Listen to your children’s concerns and let them guide the discussion.

Studies have shown that most children have mild to no symptoms; it’s okay to reassure your children with this information if needed.

Object Lesson #2: Droplets and germs, spray bottle fun!

Stand a few feet away from a child and spray their arm or any other bare spot on their body. Talk about how they got wet (and expect lots of giggles!)

Question: What If I sprayed you over your shirt, will you get wet?

  • Spray the child’s shirt (note: the shirt will get wet, but have them lift their shirt to discover that their body stayed dry). Discuss with the children that this is how masks work.
  • For children who are afraid of the mask, ask them to put it over a place on their body so you can spray it to see if it keeps them dry.
  • Have fun with this! Let each child have a turn getting sprayed.

Talking points:

  • Mask care: Now that the children have the visual of how masks work, it will make sense that there is a clean side that their face touches and a dirty side that faces outward. You can talk about folding their mask with the clean side inward when they are eating lunch at school and keeping the mask off the floor.
  • COVID-19 can also be spread by touching areas that have the germs.

Question: What if someone with COVID-19 wiped their nose with their hand and then touched the table (Kids do well with visuals so pull down your mask and pretend to do this). You can also pretend to cough and spray a piece of furniture with the spray bottle).

Explain that we touch things all day (especially at school) and we don’t need to be afraid of touching things and getting sick, we just need to remember to sanitize and/or wash our hands.

  • For older children:
    • Wearing a mask is part of being a good citizen. If you have no high-risk individuals in your family, you can explain that if your family got sick you would most likely be okay, but there is a possibility that you could spread it to someone who might get really sick from it. You can use the domino effect as an example. Explain that if they wear a mask, they are like the one domino out of the row that can stop the spread of the disease.
My kids LOVED this. They even wanted me to spray them in the face to see if the mask kept their mouth dry. Haha!

Note: Remember to let the kids ask questions and involve them in the discussion. The point of this lesson is to have fun and make COVID-19 less scary by understanding how the disease is spread and why we wear masks and keep our hands clean.

As the adult, keep your mood light hearted. If the child senses any strain or anxiety that you are having over the situation, then they are likely to feed off your stress as well.

*If you promised a small prize or treat for keeping masks on, remember to pass these out.

I hope your kids have fun with this lesson on how to teach children about masks and COVID-19! Please comment and let me know how your lesson went with your family.

Printable Lesson OutlineDownload
Printable Picture CardsDownload

Remember:

There is power in information, even for children

Need more resources to help answer children’s questions about COVID-19 and masks? Check out these websites:

The CDC has great information on how to talk to children about COVID-19: Center for Disease Control and Prevention

More information about children and masks is available from the World Health Organization: World Health Organization

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Mistakes and Regrets, a Story of a Camping trip and the Unfortunate Incident with a Chili Bomb

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Back in 2014, my super awesome husband decided to take our 6-year-old daughter camping. It was late summer and I had just had a baby. I will be completely honest in saying that I was ecstatic to have some quiet at home with the newborn, while he took our only other child on a fun overnight adventure.

After setting up camp and some play time, my husband and daughter like any good campers, started to roast some hot dogs. My husband likes chili dogs and decided it was a good idea to throw a can of chili over the fire to heat up… without venting it.

Yes, he did not open the can at all. Now why is this a bad idea???

I’m sure all of you really smart people realize that those molecules in the can were moving around like crazy as it heated up and the pressure would turn that little can into a horrific chili bomb.

With that being said, let me finish the story, if you haven’t already guessed the outcome.

So my husband, once he decided the can had enough time to heat up, carried it over to the pavilion covered picnic table. He picked up the can opener and the instant it’s blade clicked through the metal of the can- BOOM!

Chili was EVERYWHERE. Piping hot chili dripped from the underside of the pavilion, not one spot came out unscathed. The sound of the explosion was terrifying. It echoed through the campground with a deafening roar, probably scaring all the campers! Our six year old daughter came running from the tent in panic, “What was that?!”

A miracle took place in our family that day. The scalding chili was everywhere, and yet my husband did not have one burn on his body. If he had been leaning over the can as he opened it, he would have ended up in the hospital with horrible burns. Angels must have been watching over him because even his hands were were unharmed.

Now, why do I tell you this story?

Because even really smart people do really dumb things.

My husband is a smart man. No really, his IQ score- pretty impressive! Did that keep him from not thinking something through all the way and making this mistake? Nope! If he would have paused to think about what he was about to do, he would have realized the incredible stupidity of it.

We are human, we will make mistakes

Humans are imperfect beings and no matter how hard we try, we will fall short. Not always, but sometimes it is inevitable. Mistakes will happen. Especially when peer pressure, hormones, or lack of sleep get involved. I could go on listing our shortcomings of pride and other emotions that can consume us. Satan’s temptations can make everything so sparkly and appealing to our mortal eyes. Obviously, there are many things that come into play. We are going to make mistakes, no matter how hard we try, it’s going to happen.

So take a breath, step back, and realize that this is an expected outcome of coming to this earth. It is all going to be okay! Don’t be so hard on yourself when you make a mistake or do something stupid. It is all part of the journey (an unpleasant part for sure! But still a part of it).

Overcoming our shortcomings

Having a firm foundation is similar to having the Armor of God in place. When you build one, you are building the other (see When Foundations Fail). These will assist you in not making bad choices and prevent you from giving into Satan’s temptations and the inevitable heartache that accompanies those choices. My chili story is just a silly example of human stupidity… but their will be choices in this life that can be detrimental to our long term happiness and spiritual growth.

Even with the armor of God in place, will you be perfect? No- but through repentance and turning to the Savior we can blot out those mistakes and move forward.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Come and Belong

People always talk about learning from mistakes. This is a vital step of self improvement. Picking ourselves up when we haven fallen, no matter how hard, will plant our feet on our path toward eternal perfection. As long as we are progressing, that’s what matters. Once we stop striving for perfection and decide to focus on simply improving, that is when we will feel fulfilled and like we are on the correct path. It doesn’t matter how painstakingly slow each of those steps are, as long as they are moving forward.

Letting go of the past

Regret.

Regret is such a loaded word. As I contemplate it, I can feel past burdens weighing heavy on my shoulders. It’s easy to replay our mistakes and failures on a constant loop in our minds eye.

“Why did I do that?”

“Why didn’t I do that?”

“What are they going to think?”

“I’m so stupid!”

“I’m a failure.”

“I’m not worth saving.”

Our internal dialogue can be harsh! The truth is, the majority of the time these thoughts are not true at all. A couple of years ago I took one of my daughters to see a counselor who talked about these negative thoughts. He challenged her to prove these thoughts wrong whenever they popped into her head. He said that these thoughts are actually lies and although they feel like truth, they can actually be very easy to disprove. For example, if a person had the thought, “I’m so stupid,” how can they disprove it? Maybe they are a great student and actually get fantastic grades most of the time, or maybe they are a music whiz.

I loved this technique to challenge ones own thoughts. It helped my daughter stop that negative loop and focus on something more positive about herself.

When our past failures are on repeat in our brain, especially when we have repented, we are keeping ourselves stagnant and unable to progress forward. Our self worth takes a direct hit! (See Never inadequate). Our If our Savior and Heavenly Father can forgive us, shouldn’t we be able to forgive ourselves?

All of us make mistakes, and some of us very serious ones. Any thoughtful person feels a kind of failure because of his sins or moral failures… no matter what we’ve done in life, no matter what we do, God and Christ still love us just as much as they did before we failed. God and Christ do not separate themselves from the sinner, from the wrongdoer.

Lowell L. Bennion, Overcoming Our Mistakes
Russell M. Nelson, Perfection Pending

This is one of my favorite quotes. Joy, not guilt trips! Letting go of our mistakes opens our hearts and minds to happiness.

I am grateful for the Atonement and all it entails. How amazing that we can be forgiven of our sins and that our burdens can be lifted If we turn to the Savior!

Oh, and for the record, I apologize profusely for the smell and the unimaginable amount of bugs that pavilion attracted the weeks following the chili bomb incident. My husband tried to clean it, but their was only so much he could do with a limited water supply. In case you were wondering, my husband fully endorses this post and the sharing of his story. And for the record, he is a very smart man, which made this incident all the more funny.

In the end, I just want to say that the moral of the story is: even smart people do dumb things! So brush it off, pray lots, and build those stepping stones towards your bright future!

Russell M. Nelson, Perfection Pending

All are Alike Unto God

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We are all equal in the eyes of God!

During these crazy times I hope we all remember to love one another. For change to occur, it needs to start with love, understanding, and acceptance in all of our hearts. Lets start seeing others through God’s eyes.

When Foundations Fail

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Natural disasters are not subtle. They come sweeping in with an unpredictable fury leaving destruction, devastation, and chaos. That’s what I had always believed. Earthquakes, tidal waves, hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters have always had widespread coverage in the news. I was familiar with these stories so when the hairline cracks appeared in the foundation of my childhood home during the spring when I turned sixteen, I wasn’t worried.

The street I lived on, which bordered a hill had slight changes to it’s original positioning and several of our neighbors had been noticing minor cracks in their foundations and shifting on their land. “The land is probably just settling,” was a phrase I heard several times. Specialists, like the state project geologist came out and surveyed the land. They measured the cracks with special equipment and looked at the five homes on our street who were effected. At first they didn’t say much, so I assumed everything would be fine. 

I was wrong.

Those hair line cracks in the foundation, as subtle and inconspicuous as they appeared to be, started to separate at a rapid rate by late summer. One home after another was being condemned. The experts continued to monitor the land, but they couldn’t figure out what was causing the ground underneath us to shift. When our house was condemned, we were given 24 hours to evacuate.

About a week after we moved, a 10 foot drop separated the front of our foundation from the back of the foundation. The only home I had ever known was gone. 

Here is my 15 minutes of fame! Front page of the newspaper sporting my pretty awesome overalls and carrying our cat, Mitzi out the back door of our home.

Almost two decades later and I can still remember packing up my house in a fit of adrenaline during the day. Into the silent night hours I worked with my parents. Boxes upon boxes left our house of things that you accumulate over a lifetime. We didn’t have much time to sort and since we had no where to go, most things got packed away and sent to a storage shed.

That was the first time I had ever stayed awake for two days straight, but I didn’t even feel tired. It was surreal. I packed fervently which kept my mind busy. I didn’t have time to think or let the emotions of what was happening impact me. The house creaked and groaned around us, as it was literally being ripped apart. I still remember the sound of my dad cutting the bolts that secured the back of the house to the foundation, to give us more time. 

We were going to loose everything. The insurance company claimed the landslide to be, “an act of God” and said it wasn’t covered.

I emptied drawers.

I boxed up closets. 

I cleaned out cabinets. 

I hugged neighbors and childhood friends goodbye. 

I packed up my bedroom. 

I carried Mitzi from our home and hid her in the hotel we lived in for two weeks (what else could we do with a cat who also lost her home?)

I signed my name to a baseboard in my bedroom. 

And I said goodbye to my home.

Our house was small and modest with a little carport and three big windows in the front that looked into my bedroom. From the outside it probably didn’t seem like much, but it wasn’t just a house. It was my home, a place where I could climb into my favorite tree for sanctuary in my backyard. A place that had the best Little Mermaid rock in the world. It had the bedroom I had shared with my sister where we played Malarky and Hu-watch-ee-foo, and did Christmas concerts with our stuffed animals. Sure, we had gotten older and I finally had the room to myself when my sister left for college. Life wasn’t perfect, but it was all I knew and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet.

But I had to.  

The back wall of the foundation completely dropped and the front of the foundation stayed in place. See the top of the door opening in the back wall? That’s the door I was walking out of where the newspaper picture was taken.

Disasters in life

Everyone in life has disasters. Some are obvious and come rampaging in and the devastation that happens is very apparent to an outsiders point of view. I had always thought of a landslide this way, where tons of rocks, mud, and water come rushing down a hill crushing and engulfing anything in it’s path. This I learned isn’t always the case. Disasters can also be subtle, but just as devastating. I’m sure we can all relate to the current situation of a worldwide pandemic. This trial started with news stories of a virus in far away countries that ended up creeping it’s way to our very own doorstep.

At sixteen years old, my life had been turned upside down. I started my junior year of high school living in a hotel. The American Red Cross paid for the hotel to help my parents get on their feet and until we found an apartment to rent. 

My parents took this time to evaluate more than just our living situation. After two weeks of living in the hotel they found an apartment, and soon after they told my sister and I they were going to get a divorce. This is when all the emotions I had held at bay swept in. Was it a surprise they wanted a divorce? Absolutely not. My parent’s rocky relationship was a known fact, it was more a matter of when things would end rather than if. Even though I knew it would eventually happen, it didn’t change the finality of it.

The only world I had ever known was literally crumbling in front of me. My home was gone, and my dad wouldn’t be living with us. It was all gone. Any illusion of my former life had been uprooted and destroyed. 

Whether the disasters we face come rampaging in or come at us slowly and unassuming, how do we survive these events without crumbling?

Building Our Foundation

For several years after the landslide one question kept resurfacing in my mind:

How had our families foundation been as faulty as the foundation we built our home on? I’m talking about the personal stuff that went on within the walls of my childhood home.

So I ask you now: how is your foundation? How is the foundation of your family? Is it where you want it to be?

What if I told you that there was a different house on our very same lot that had been deemed unstable and was moved away before my parents built our house? As crazy as that sounds, it is true! The foundation of the old home was ripped from the ground and the land put up for auction. My parents were reassured that as long as they built the house further up on the lot and closer to the road they would not have a problem.

I’ve noticed far too often the heart breaking scene of people shaping their lives with faulty foundations. Foundations that have already been proven that they cannot hold and will collapse. People lost and suffering due to drug addiction, pornography, and other such things are all around us. We all have known someone in these circumstances, whether it be a friend or a loved one. Or perhaps it is you that finds yourself in a place in which you feel lost and desperate. These devices are tools Satan uses to weaken our foundations. Feeling hopeless is exactly what the adversary wants, but it’s a lie.

It is never too late to start strengthening our foundations. It doesn’t matter if you are in a good place now, or in the depths of despair. We only need to start with a prayer. It’s that simple.

Christ loves us and he will come swiftly to our aid and fill any cracks that threaten our foundation.

What hairline cracks are compromising your foundation? Your families foundation? You might notice small ones that have a simple fix. Others might be overwhelming to try to take on any sort of solution right now. But I urge you to start patching one crack at a time, focus on what you can do. The reality is that we can’t do it alone, and that is okay! With faith, our Savoir can patch any foundation that is lacking.

I urge us all to find those hairline cracks in our foundations. They can be so unassuming, barely worth a second thought. The reality, however, is they could end up tearing us apart. Satan knows our weaknesses, he sees where our foundation is failing. We need to prepare for the day when he intends to exploit those weaknesses. With a firm foundation, we cannot fall!

The storms and whirlwinds that plague us may come from choices we have made or from outside forces that are not in our control. In the end though, it doesn’t matter because the answer is the same. Christ.

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

Matthew 7:25

All those years ago I decided not to crumble. I decided to hold my head up and overcome. I had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. At times I barely felt like I was surviving, while other times I found peace and eventually joy! It is possible to find happiness, no matter how hard the rain is beating us down or what disaster we may face. You may not find it immediately, but don’t give up. This does not mean ignoring your sorrow and pain, (see Letting Ourselves Grieve) but finding hope and the Saviors light in the dark is always possible. He can ease our burdens and lighten the unbearable load we carry… if we let him. We must choose to focus on Christ and not the storm raging around us. When it seems as though our foundation is slipping out beneath us, turn to Christ. He will lift us when we need it the most.

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