Tips to help your kids understand the COVID-19 pandemic

Basically everyone is some kind of mess right now, as the world seemingly runs away from us in the midst of a confusing, life-altering pandemic. We adults at least can look for solid, up-to-date facts and use our phones and other devices to stay in touch with friends, family, and co-workers near and far in our need to understand this chaotic new world.

But young kids—utterly robbed of schools, daycares, extended family, and even parks and playgrounds—are seeing their lives arguably even more upturned than their parents' lives have been. We as their caretakers can do our best to build new routines and schedules, stick to healthy habits, and to maintain their mental health along with our own, but one of the hardest things to grapple with right now is every small child's favorite question: "Why?"

Even the best-prepared parent may be faltering on that one when it comes to preschool and lower elementary-aged students. "I, like many others here, have a small child (kindergartner, to be exact) that has had life upended by school closings and shut-in laws," one Ars reader recently wrote in a comment. "I've been trying to explain to her the virus, and she's smart—she gets the gist of it—but I'm not finding a good 'kid' way to explain all the details (the social distancing, the testing, etc). She's a Girl Scout, and they're doing great badges for learning the virus and all we're doing, but as a 5-year-old, I'm having trouble with her 'getting' it all."