(July 2020) I dare say that you have not been reading this edition of Eastern Shore Parents the way that you thought you would a few months ago. This time of year is normally filled with anticipation of summer camps and activities and travel plans. And, while those things are not completely out of the question, we are all trying to adjust to the “new normal” … my family included!
When this all started back in March (yeah, I know … it feels like longer) one of the first questions we asked ourselves as a group was how we were going to take advantage of this time to challenge ourselves in new areas. One of those that I hope you as parents were able to take advantage of was a Facebook Live series that we titled “Homeschool Rocks with the Bone Doc”. Suzanne Crawley, PA-C and I had so much fun for 6 weeks giving online lessons about the skeleton, bone health, muscles, tendons and ligaments, and one day we even played with some power tools!
For us, this was a way to try to use our time to give some educational content to you guys as we were all stuck at home. And even now, on rainy or just plain hot summer days that lie ahead, if you are looking for something educational and hopefully funny and entertaining for your children, then you can access those video lessons on our practice Facebook page.
For some really well done educational content, I would also point you to a couple of resources on YouTube from ”Nemours KidsHealth” and “Operation Ouch”. Each of these inspired much of our content. Another wonderful educational website called “BrainPop” is also offering free access to their entire content. They have great material on health and the human body, but also many other topics that kids would enjoy.
Finally, I want to encourage everyone that if you are successful in getting your family to spend some time continuing to learn and find new things that interest them during this time, you are doing a great job. Keep up the good work. This time isn’t just a crisis for us to manage our way through, but one to find new ways to thrive in. We can do it if we share our successes, and even our failures, with one another. We all have a certain number of days to be parents and we don’t get that time back, even though it feels like this pandemic owes us one!
So as the psalmist wrote years ago and it still rings true today, “Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom”.
Dr. Savage received his MD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, followed by residency at the UAB Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He is Board Certified and Fellowship Trained in Sports Medicine
