Wash your hands and sing "Happy Birthday" twice!

While Corona hygiene rules are taught in a child-friendly manner

It is considered one of the most important tools we have in the fight against bacteria and viruses: Washing your hands. As a parent, you too must remind yourself to wash your hands after using public transport, or preferably not to touch the pole on the bus at all. Children and toddlers again need special guidance and motivation to follow hygiene rules, because in certain age groups they do not understand why washing their hands is so important. Here you will find some tips to help the youngest and the very youngest learn about the rules of hygiene, in keeping with World Handwashing Day.

Wash your hands and sing "Happy Birthday" twice!

How primary school children fight bacteria

Primary school children exchange erasers at school, take their friends by the hand while playing or share a football after school. All these are important parts of their development. The following ideas are helpful in turning Primary school children into hand washing professionals after playing:

  1. Making calls: Depending on their age, primary school children may not yet understand exactly what a pandemic is, but they do understand that it is possible to infect each other with diseases and that hygiene is important.

  2. Record rules and rituals: Even if primary school children already understand the need for hygiene, they need remembrance and structure above all. For this purpose, you can establish common rules and rituals when hands need to be washed

  1. Insert games: Anything fun, kids can remember twice as well. For example, when it comes to the length of time you wash your hands, you could agree with your child to have all family members sing "Happy Birthday" twice. This provides structure and orientation. Be a role model yourself: People, especially children, learn by watching and imitating. So if you wash your hands regularly yourself, you are a good role model for your child

From the sandbox into the bathtub: teaching small children hygiene rules

Especially with small children, washing their hands is inevitable, they take everything in their mouth, eat with their hands, touch everything and everyone and like to dig in the sandbox. The following tips will help to bring hygiene closer to the very youngest:

  1. Easy as pie explanations: On the Internet you can find Videos that describe how to wash your hands properly, for example: First get your hands wet, then press the soap once. This can be an incentive for your child to wash his or her hands. Washing hands together with the child: Children like to imitate and when they see you washing your hands, they want to do it too. Here you can introduce a small family ritual where the whole family gathers around the sink. Hang up Your own towel at a height that the child can reach. There are adhesive hooks for this in the DIY store, which can be easily removed later. Also a stool, so that the child from a certain age can reach the sink by himself. This also promotes the independence of your child. With fun to hygiene: Small children like it colourful and fun. Here are a few ideas how this could look when washing their hands

Conclusion: In the year 2020, hygiene is an important topic. For big and small. Primary school children can already think for themselves and need reminders to wash their hands. Toddlers need to be taken even more by the hand and playfully introduced to daily hand washing.

Did you like our contribution? You might also be interested in our article about 6 rituals that lead to growing family peace through more organization. (Organization for growing family peace).

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