Online classes helps Moody Toddlers

When the quarantine started, Lucas was supposed to start classes at a new daycare that was closer to home. He had tried it there once over a year ago but they didn’t have whole day daycare back then. Now that they’ve changed their schedule, we wanted to give it another try. Of course the quarantine changed everyone’s plans. The first week, we tried teaching Lucas ourselves by reading to him, using flashcards and creative activities. It’s a good thing his Loola was also staying with us and she helped read some books with The Child. The first week, The Child was rather moody, he would cry easily or have minor tantrums like stomping his feet. We figured he was also feeling cabin fever since he was used to a daily schedule at school/daycare. I think that kids just really need structure, something regular or something familiar. Lucas was getting short tempered and moody last week, then on week two, his daycare started 40 minute online classes in the afternoons where they did art, singing, show and tell. Plus they could also see and hear each other, and interact with each other and with the teachers.

It made a world of difference. He became clearly more cheerful (from an already extremely cheerful child) and less moody. The Child became easier to talk to and convince to do stuff like bath, clean up his toys and go to sleep. He was more cheerful and happy.

The best part was, he would look forward to school the next day. He was willing to stop watching TV and playing with other toys then sit down at his desk in front of the laptop and wait for his classmates to appear in Zoom. You could ask him about school and he would talk about their lessons and activities, then show off his artwork. We are so glad his new daycare decided to hold these online lessons daily.