Talking To Children About The Haze

Teaching children is a ongoing daily thing. It is not just sending them to school to learn the ABCs. Children have a lot of questions on just about everything and instead of seeing this as an annoying thing, we should take this as an opportunity to teach them about life.

We are currently facing a bad spell of haze and smog. As a parent, this leads to lots of questions and opportunities to teach.

We should...

1. Explain to the children about the haze, how it happens, why it happens, who is responsible (not to play a blame game) but to educate the children about how important it is to take care of our environment and show them that this is a good example of what bad things can happen when we do not
2. Explain to them the health issues and teach them how to wear a mask the right way. This may lead to more questions. Some children will love the mask while others, like my daughter gets embarrassed and is afraid to wear it because she is afraid she will be laughed at. I had to tell her not to worry because everyone will be wearing it too and health and safety is very important. I also told her that if anyone teases her she can pretend to be a doctor or a dentist and ask if they would like to have a health check or have their teeth removed, then she can laugh with them instead of having them laugh at her. She soon discovered that it was not so bad after all as even her teacher was wearing a mask and they laughed at the teacher instead because they thought she looked very funny. 

Here is a good site to explain to kids about haze and the Air Quality Index.

Every day, many situations are an opportunity to teach, even a bad haze.