“Now that everyone is vaccinated, we can all play together!”

Dear Families,

I got my first vaccine recently, along with about ten other CEC staff at the same time and place. It was so uplifting and rather celebratory and certainly gave all of us there a strong sense of community. It was a great experience.

Children are paying attention. They are hearing staff sharing about getting their vaccine. They hear parents talking about themselves and/or family members getting a vaccine. And of course, they are processing all of this. Here’s a sweet story affirming how much children are taking in and how well they are taking care of one another.

Children were playing on the structure when one child told the children, “Now that everyone is vaccinated, we can all play together!” More conversations about who got a vaccine and what they could do if they had one transpired before another child, who had been pretending to be a doctor already, announced, “Hey, we have free vaccines for everybody! Fee vaccines!” Another child then asked, “Are they flu vaccines or COVID vaccines?” She was clear, responding, “They are COVID vaccines.”

Children began offering their arms for the poke, but a few were not involved or interested. The doctor then went around asking if those children wanted to get a free vaccine. I appreciated that she asked, and was clear the vaccine was free. Another child joined her as a doctor and the two of them proceeded to vaccinate the group. “Now we all have our vaccine and we can all play together!”

This kind of processing, as we talked about in an earlier message, is not unique to this group of children, or unique to the CEC. I can imagine children all over the world who are hearing adults talking about vaccines playing out very similar scenarios for themselves. It is a very reassuring image for me. This is the importance of play in the lives of children. 

Be well and play on!

Ellen Veselack
Director of Preschool Program