Following on from the last post about pandemic preparedness some time ago, which was getting a bit long, here are some other things to consider as part of low key preparation for another pandemic.
If you / your teenager is thinking about university, always keep in mind the possibility of doing an undergraduate degree with the Open University and considering a more traditional university experience for a Master’s course at a later date. Other universities may have good online / distance learning options that are worth looking at – far better to be on a course designed to be taught in this way than one hastily converted. Assuming you get on well together and there’s enough space, living together and studying from home may well be more satisfying (and less expensive) than living in university halls or a shared house whilst still doing all of your studying online. It may need to involve some deliberate resetting of expectations of each other and how you interact. If you’re in a position to do very advance planning and own your own home, creating a “granny annex” could provide a good option for a young adult studying from home.
If you have a teenager, think about how they’re going to take GCSE + other exams. If there’s the potential for a COVID style teacher grading system, they may be best off remaining on the school roll, notwithstanding you may need to deal with an attendance officer. If not, or if you are planning on longer term elective home education, you will want to think about ways in which your teenager can study for accredited qualifications. This point particularly applies to older teenagers looking to take A levels or other qualifications – can you find good online teaching, with the ability to enter students for exams?
Find out about the local elective home education groups in your area and nationally – who do you get on with? What’s on offer that works for you as a family?
Try to teach children how to swallow tablets – it gives you more options for giving them medicine.
If anybody eats a restricted diet due to ARFID or similar reasons, think about ways of managing this when ‘safe’ foods are less available. If the next pandemic is an avian influenza – H5N1 there will be shortages of eggs, milk, other dairy products, beef and consequent shortages of all the other things people go to as substitutes for them. You might be able to work with them to increase the range of foods they consider ‘safe’. You might be able to create a big pantry to store lots of their non perishable safe foods.
If you can afford it, make sure there’s at least one computer per person of school age and older and a robust enough broadband connection to cope with everybody being on video calls or watching videos or playing video games at the same time.