A brilliant idea.

While the kids might have thought that the schools closing was great at first reality starts to sink in after a few days. Already my son is missing his friends and his afterschool club and his communion has now more than likely been cancelled as we don't know how long this is all going to go on for. The students of one school in Japan decided that despite being in lockdown they still wanted to celebrate their graduation and they did so in a very inventive way.

一日中オンラインで集まってゲームをやって笑い転げている。楽しそうで良いねぇ。 pic.twitter.com/sYqoJ1zYaj

— 柏原周平 (@backyennew) March 14, 2020

The students of the Japanese primary school organised to hold their end of the year graduation through the computer game Minecraft. They might not have gotten caps and gowns, diplomas or lots of photos with their parents, but they did get to chat with one another and spend some time together while still observing the lockdown. Leave it to kids to come up with this creative way of celebrating their graduation. Recently I've been spending more time on things like Skype and Facetime with my own friends and it's got me thinking that I should probably arrange some virtual playdates for my kids too. As I said, none of us know when the schools will reopen and given that we are all being told to cancel playdates and time spent in places like playgrounds, organising playdates through the internet seems like the best solution. The isolation period can be tough on all our mental health and it's important to stay in touch with our friends and family. If you've got the contact details of other parents whose children attend your child's school you should reach out to them and see about arranging a virtual get together for the kids.