Keeping Your Kids Healthy During Cold and Flu Season
Here at the Junior Explorer Club, we always practice good hygiene procedures. Because we’re in the middle of cold and flu season, and with the recent heightened concern around COVID-19, we wanted to reiterate our processes and share how you can talk with your kids about ways to stay healthy. Here’s what we do:
- Fighting germs: We clean and disinfect areas throughout the day and every night.
- Teaching kids about how to prevent the spread germs: The tips we talk about and practice – which you can reinforce at home – include:
- Wash your hands: Thoroughly washing your hands with soap and water is the best way to remove germs. Here’s what we’re practicing:
- Wet your hands with clean, running water, turn off the tap, and apply soap.
- Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and your fingertips.
- Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds (the time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice).
- Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
- Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.
- Don’t share utensils and food: Germs spread through hand-to-mouth contact. We’re reminding kids to not share water bottles, snacks, and other food.
- Use the “vampire cough:” Coughing directly into your hands spreads germs. We’re teaching kids to use a tissue or the “vampire cough,” or coughing into your elbow.
- Don’t touch your face: Germs are most likely to enter your body through the eyes, nose, and mouth. We’re reminding kids to try to not touch their faces.
- Wash your hands: Thoroughly washing your hands with soap and water is the best way to remove germs. Here’s what we’re practicing:
- When kids are sick: As you know, our policy is kids who are running a fever must stay home, and they must be fever-free for 24 hours before returning. If someone develops a fever while they’re with us, we let them rest in a quiet area away from the group and call their parents to pick them up.
- When staff are sick: Staff who are running a fever are prohibited from coming to work. We have reminded them of this policy and reinforcing that it’s OK to stay home if you’re running a fever.
- Staying informed: There’s a flurry of news around COVID-19 – not all of which is accurate – and things are changing daily. We’re staying current on what the experts are advising and what’s happening in central Ohio so we can adjust our precautions as needed. Two resources we’re following are the Ohio Department of Health (http://coronavirus.ohio.gov) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/). Another good resource is the CDC travel page – this has great information if you are traveling outside of the U.S. for spring break (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html). I encourage you to regularly visit these sites as well so you are informed.
We are here to serve our parents and families. Should schools close, we are here to help families as capacity and state guidelines allow; this includes spring break. We will only open a conservative amount and only to JEC families. Please be patient if we should need to close last minute. We will do our best to alert families in a timely manner.
Our door is open. Please call us with questions or concerns.