The last day before the children’s return – Documentary

It is Friday morning. Kindergarten manager Kathy Dayvary Larsen walks through the common areas inside the private Speyer kindergarten, located at the top of the Torshov Valley in Oslo.

Here there are hardly any children running in the hallways, eating slices of bread with liver pie in the dining room, playing together or reading in the reading corner.

This has been the case for several weeks.

There were 80 children together. During the night they were reduced to three. Children became more gradually as some of the parents defined work as socially critical. Eleven children in a kindergarten that usually houses 80 are a drastic change anyway.

On Monday, a drastic change is expected.

“We have sent SMS and have called all parents to find out who intends to send the children back on Monday,” says kindergarten manager Kathy Dayvary Larsen.

He doesn’t remember how many phones he has received from his parents since it was announced that kindergartens would reopen on Monday, April 20.

Everyone is wondering the same thing.

Is it safe to send children back? Would she have sent her own children to kindergarten?

Young children and infectious measures

“Do we also attach a string here?”

While everything should be felt and experienced normally for children, a lot should also be different when opening kindergarten.

– My nerves were in full tension when they told us we would reopen. Waiting for the infection guide was like waiting for an exam, Larsen says.

In summary, the authorities’ infection guide is a checklist of specific hygiene and infection control measures that must be implemented before kindergarten can be reopened.

Colleagues laugh when Kathy Dayvary Larsen takes away green, plant-like pets.

– Spira Here you have to take a crown vacation, she says, tossing the green trees onto the pile of things to take out of the rooms.

Squeeze, or not squeeze

– I hope to see the children again, says educator Håkon Hvistendahl.

Both he and his colleague Mari Eriksen understand that the reopening in no way means that everything will be the same.

– It is a new and unknown situation, but frankly, I don’t worry. I’m more excited about how things are. We have a plan with good routines, so we just have to take on the challenges that come our way, ”says Eriksen.

A clear challenge is to make kindergarten children understand that they must stay away from each other and from adults. Therefore, authorities have proposed that daycare centers limit the number of close contacts by having small groups and having permanent employees for each group. It’s called creating “cohorts”.

– But how do you really stop a child who wants to hug someone outside of their own cohort?

– If the children try to hug us or the other children, then we should give them a hug. A child who seeks contact and is rejected may notice that something is wrong. That can lead to insecurity, says Larsen.

According to her, the goal of reopening kindergartens is that children should be sociable in a family environment.

– Then there must be security and care at the bottom. So no child should be denied a hug with us. But then we will talk to them and show them alternative forms of greeting that are not infectious.

– More concerned about parents than children.

«Handwashing
my friends
good with soap and water.
Away with all that
naughty,
Thumb don’t forget
Before eating
when your pig
and I’ve been in the bathroom»

Larsen sings the children’s song “The Bear Sleeps” with new and updated lyrics.

“We have to make it fun and make it a game to make hand washing feel good,” he says.

But the daycare manager is not really concerned about the children. It is the parents who face the great challenge when the kindergarten reopens.

Of 80 children, the parents of 65 children have said they will send them to daycare on Monday.

– I just hope that not everyone intends to deliver or collect at the same time, says Larsen.

The parents’ dilemma.

For Casper Brekke parents and co-inhabitants, there was no question what to do when told that the Kindergarten in Torshovdalen would reopen.

He has closely followed information from health authorities and has seen simulations of how the infection can spread in society.

– We trust the authorities when they say it is safe. Our son Tobias looks forward to seeing his friends again, says Brekke.

Leon, 5, who goes to the same daycare as Tobias, is also delighted. But according to mother Lina Solheim, Leon will not have a meeting on Monday.

She is fired from work and therefore has the opportunity to be home with Leon and her older sister Vilma.

– Now that I’m still on leave, I’ll keep him at home on Monday, says Solheim.

Leon misses playing with his friends. But he knows why he has to wait a bit before seeing them again.

– Because the coronavirus is here.

When Grandpa came to visit, Leon was scared and upset. He wanted to hug his grandfather, but he did not dare because he did not want to infect him.

– I had learned that older people are more vulnerable. He was worried about his grandfather then, says Solheim.

She says she tries to talk to the children without fear.

– My children know that it will most likely turn out well if we get sick. But they also know that it’s important that we don’t pass the infection on to others, she says.

Solheim justifies his decision that the kindergarten staff will have a new daily life with many infectious measures.

– The load and pressure will probably be big enough on Monday. So we can wait until Tuesday to ease the strain on staff, he says, adding:

“I am sure I will send Leon to kindergarten, and it is clear that he will be there a few hours a few days next week,” says Solheim.

The nursery manager’s dilemma

Kindergarten principal Kathy Dayvary Larsen and her husband are considered to have critical community jobs, so they had the opportunity to send their three-year-old daughter to kindergarten earlier this week.

Therefore, he had to ask himself the same question that many parents had asked him.

Is it safe to send the child back to kindergarten?

– Our three-year-old son is in kindergarten. I saw how happy he was to see his friends again. Her sense of happiness overcomes my fear of the crown, says Larsen.

But she says she must depend on other parents what they want to do on Monday.

– It is a decision they have to make for their own children. But at least we do everything we can to make it safe, Larsen says.