About kindergarten and school reopening in Norway

This week, all kindergartens in Norway opened their gates again. Children had been at home since March 12th, when the lockdown was implemented.

The routine at kindergarten is not back to normal. For the opening to be safe for the children and the employees, many adjustments had to be made. The children have been divided in smaller groups and should only have contact with those in the same group. The kindergarten facilities are also divided by areas and each group have only access to one given area. They have different entrance doors now and hangers for each group are set outside. Each child has a determined deliver/pick up time. Sunscreen must be applied by the parent. Lunch is brought from home and no fruits can be sent from parents to kindergarten. No personal toys or objects are allowed. Parents can’t enter the building.

My opinion.

Children are affected by social distancing in many ways. I believed it was too early for a comeback, but the number of sick people with Covid-19 has plummeted in Norway. It seems like this is a wise decision because parents can focus on their work and kids can go back to a certain routine and play with their friends. Let’s hope for the best and continue doing our share.

School reopens for 1st to 4th grade next Monday. Now this is a big challenge. Dividing students in smaller groups and keeping a distance at least 1 meter between them requires a lot of new strategies that none of us is used to. Washing their hands will become part of the learning program as well as avoiding physical contact.

After school program will also have changes. They must bring food from home. The time will be reduced (12:00 to 15:00), specific pick up time for each kid and all activities (every day) will be only outdoors. It’s a puzzle for pedagogical workers (like me) to come up with activities that don’t involve physical contact. For example: the children can play football, but not use their hands. What about the keeper? No hands. That’s because we can’t have many people touching the same surface without it be cleaned in between. When they wash their hands, there is going to be 1 meter distance between kids. Picture how long it’s going to take 14 kids to wash their hands so that we can go play outside. And going outside only in groups of five. Now you can imagine how hard work it is.

To me, this pandemic times show us how valuable our health and education professionals are.

As an employee in after school program, I’m both excited to go back on track and meet the kids again and scared not to be able to follow all the rules strictly. Working with children is pretty unpredictable. We all want to be the safe heaven for the children.

I only hope that people in general don’t think: “Oh now it’s great, we’re safe to visit friends, party a little, since schools are opening again. We’ll all be in touch with many people again anyway. So, why should I say no to my friend’s invitation?” I tell you why. Because the government is taking care of this whole pandemic situation and we should do what we’re told to do. Be a grown up. We’re sending our kids to school because it seems safe to do it. It’s the first step. If people mess up and skip steps, we may all have to go back to step 1.

What is this all teaching us? Flexibility, values, trust, responsibility. As our prime minister said: Life and health come first.