5 Ways for Kids to Stay Connected with Their Social-Distance Friends

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In a summer following the longest and weirdest school year ever, there are no traditional summer camps or extracurricular activities for our kids. According to The Conversation, “Over the last 30 years, children’s friendships have been largely forged in the classroom and during extracurricular activities. That’s because, on average, children spend 6.5 hours a day in school, and 57% of children spend every day or most days involved in extracurricular activities.”

It's not surprising that our kids are lonely and suffering. COVID-19 essentially took away their main access to their friends. Since friendship is important for our kids' social-emotional development and their mental health, it is our job to do what we can to help them stay connected with their friends while social distancing. Here are five things we’ve been doing with our girls.

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1. Virtual Playdates

Technology has truly been a lifesaver throughout this pandemic. We have encouraged our girls to have virtual playdates (or meetups for older kids). Essentially, this has meant relaxing some of our screen rules, such as time limits or chatting with friends, but we’ve still maintained safeguards (such as only chatting online with people we know in real life). Give your kids time on your phone, computer, or device to video chat with their friends through Skype, Facebook Messenger, or Zoom. Simply seeing their friends through the screen will make their day! For example, my youngest daughter had an absolute blast having an online dance party with her elementary classmates.

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2. Online Gaming

Personally, I don’t get the whole online gaming thing, but my girls love playing online games like Minecraft and Roblox. But what they love even more is when they get to play with friends. Fortunately, most online games provide ways for you to play and chat with friends. Additionally, there are online game sites, like Pogo, that make it easy to play board games like Monopoly with socially-distanced friends.

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3. Netflix Party

Are you tired of watching your kid’s favorite shows? Let them watch their favorite shows or movies with their friends online using the Netflix Party tool. Our Children explains, “Anyone with a monthly Netflix subscription can add this free Google Chrome extension. You can synchronize video playback with your child’s friends and add group chat so kids can ‘talk’ during the movie. Anyone in the group can pause, play, fast forward and rewind the movie so everyone is in the same spot.”

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4. Write Old Fashioned Letters

Have your kids ever written a letter to a friend? I’m not talking about a thank you note after a birthday party. I’m talking about an old-fashioned pen pal letter. I’m betting the answer is never. Now is the perfect time to introduce your kids to the joy of getting a letter from a friend in the mail. Get them some cute stationery, stamps, and their friend’s addresses and watch them connect the old-fashioned way.

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5. Physically Distanced Neighbors

This last one is going to vary depending on your family’s unique situation. If you feel comfortable allowing your kids to have an outdoor playdate with your neighbors, then just remember to enforce physical distancing. While playdates are still frowned upon, outdoor playdates are deemed more acceptable. Harvard Medical School suggests, “Something like going for a bike ride, or a hike, allows you to be together while sharing fewer germs (bringing and using hand sanitizer is still a good idea). You need to have ground rules, though, about distance and touching, and if you don't think it's realistic that your children will follow those rules, then don't do the playdate even if it is outdoors.”