Recently one of my students was involved in a horrific car accident. My first thought when I heard the news was, "Lord, please bring him home safe and well." My second thought was, "How am I going to explain his absence to the rest of the classroom?
Well, there is only one answer to this: "Don't overshare details". Young children do not need details. They only need to know the basics. So, as I explained to my classroom, Simon (name changed for privacy) has not been feeling well so his mommy and daddy are keeping him home for a few weeks. All they needed to understand was that Simon would be gone for awhile. To turn this into a classroom discussion and, of course, add some math and literacy to the situation; we wrote Simon's name on our classroom calendar and counted down the days until his return. We then talked about things we could do for him while he was at home. Some of those things included, making a card that we had the entire school and teachers sign (kids did handprints and it became several pages long like a book for Simon to look at), we also made weekly videos for Simon to watch while he was home recovering and lastly, we made a welcome back, Simon banner for our classroom.
Not only, did I not share details and have to worry about undue anxiety with Simon's peers but, the classroom was able to use real world problem solving and math skills to welcome their friends back to school and at the same time, learn a lesson in empathy and caring. I would love to hear some of your feedback on this topic. Feel free to share below!
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