Covid-19 Vaccine: First Two Days
Hurray! It’s Vaccine Day!
What to Expect — Vaccine Reactions
That’s what we (Ms. Liz and Ms. LJ) have been cheering all day!
When we saw that Preschool Teachers would be eligible for the vaccine starting this week, we decided we wanted to be leading the pack and documenting our journey all the way. We talk a lot about this in our live video right after our first vaccination, but here is a quick overview.
We hope that by getting the vaccine as soon as we could, being open and honest about our experiences, providing peer reviewed research, and encouraging everyone to talk to their PERSONAL physician, we can help alleviate any fears and dispel any misinformation relating to the Covid-19 vaccine.
When we arrived at INOVA Fairfax at 8:38 AM there was a long, appropriately spaced line! It wound all the way to the parking-lot. But the weather was good and spirits were high!
One of the things LJ was anxious about was not the vaccine at all, but the fact that we had to go to a hospital. We were concerned about being contacts of all of those people, masks or no. But the line moved at an even clip and, in no time at all, we were waiting with our little registration clip boards for a nurse.
Some quick thoughts before THE BIG MOMENT:
Everyone on the staff was excited we were there. They were encouraging and helpful. We had our IDs, proof that we worked at a school and weren’t “jumping the line,” and our appointment confirmation sheets, but they took us at our word. We honestly think that they are just trying to make sure everyone gets it as easily and painlessly as possible, which was encouraging. This is something that should be available to as many people as possible as quickly as possible, and Fairfax County is a medical powerhouse.
There were at least fifty stations with health professionals standing by. Our nurses were friendly, warm, ready to answer any questions.
WE BOTH GOT THE PFIZER VACCINE. Fact Sheet for Pfizer Vaccine
The stick was surprisingly not painful! Giving blood, the TDAP, Flu shots, PNEUMAVAX, there have been far worse shots in our experience. They gave us a card so that we could schedule our second vaccination in within 21 days. We were moved into an area stationed with health professionals where we could sit between 15-30 minutes to see if we had any immediate reactions, either from the vaccine or, more likely, a Vasovagle Syncope reaction from being stuck with a needle.
(What is Vasovagle Syncope? READ MORE HERE)
In the afternoon, Ms. Victoria, our fantastic OWLS teacher, also got her vaccine! Hurray! We felt empowered, like we could finally, FINALLY do something about this pandemic. This was a concrete step in the right direction, a small action to say “we are here to support our health, our families, and our community!” We finished up the day with a Kindergarten Interest Meeting all about our beliefs in play-based curriculums and what our Common Ground Kindergarten would look like this coming September!
Whether it was the excitement, the long day, or the vaccine, all of us went to bed early, feeling quite tired and a little warm.
Ms. LJ felt a bit itchy around the site, and an immediate tightness in the shoulder that lasted until Saturday. It was never any worse than what you would experience with the TDAP shot. She also went to bed early both Thursday and Friday night.
Ms. Liz was dizzy at first, a regular reaction for her to most vaccines, and her shoulder also felt tight as the day went on.
Ms. Victoria had pain in her shoulder, and for the first three days she had fatigue, flu-like symptoms, and occasional hot flashes.
Mr. Josh had the shoulder pain and flu like symptoms the next day, but two days out already feels better.
We are excited to announce that Ms. Adella, Ms. Mimi, Ms. Simi, Ms. Pinky, Ms. Vanessa, Ms. Petty, Ms. Janette, and Ms. Kisha will all be getting their first doses over the next two weeks as well!
Holiday Events: Creative Tradition Twists and New Classics
The holidays are a time of giving. It is a time when we reflect on other’s needs, how we can show them we value their happiness over our own.
This holiday season we are encouraging you to find creative and lovely ways to celebrate that protects the health and happiness of those around you.
Is it hard? Absolutely. When we are tired and overstressed from a long and anxiety-inducing year, it can be hard to be creative and come up with new and exciting traditions.
Is it disappointing? In some very real ways! Not being able to see our grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. all around the same table is disappointing. I miss the big family rip-a-thon where we all pass over presents, knocking over each others’ hot ciders and laughing at “A Christmas Story” for the 100th time. I miss being crammed on Grandma’s old brown couch, that same green, orange, and brown quilt that is in every grandma’s house thrown over our legs. We all have dinners we are trying to justify, trips we are trying to make work, events that seem un-skippable.
Is it worth it? Yes.
Yes it is. It is worth protecting your loved ones every time. It is worth losing one year to have another decade or three of holidays ahead of you.
On December 9th the governor of Virginia implored his citizens to “use common sense” when considering any activity outside of the house.
While we do not have a policy, the health department recommends that you quarantine for 14 days both before and after travel.
That is Five Weeks away from daycare for your kids for one week of travel. There are much better ways to celebrate!
Need some ideas?
We are happy to share, and we ask that you share your ideas too! But here are some suggestions we have come up with here at Common Ground.
1. Ugly Ornament Exchange — Ship the silliest, whackiest, ugliest ornament to each other you can find. Make them personal, make them heartwarming, make them ridiculous. Then pick a day when you all sign onto Zoom and share them with each other! Vote on the absolute winner of the contest, and then the giver can REVEAL themselves the victor!
2. Group Decoration — If you’re local, pick someone’s front yard to have a tree. bring ornaments to decorate that tree together. Have the person who’s house it is post up photos as more and more ornaments get added.
3. Hanukkah Lights — Each night have someone else light the candles and lead the prayer over zoom! If you live close by you can also have one person each night make a dish for everyone and drop it off. If you don’t, or if this isn’t practical, you can also just show what you’re eating.
4. Dreidel Games — you can definitely play dreidel over zoom, discord, or anything where you can see each other!
5. Disney + has a feature where you can watch together called GroupWatch where you can all stream together at the same time! Watch your favorite holiday movies together.
6. Drive Through Holiday light shows have always been a huge tradition in my family. Check out THIS LINK for all of the safe drive-through light shows near you! You can also drive through your neighborhood with popcorn, a happy audiobook, or holiday music playing while you admire the lights.
7. Writing Letters — Let’s revive an old tradition as a new tradition. Handwriting Letters with drawings and words of affirmation has always been a way to show love from far away. There has never been a more appropriate time to do this. Make sure to pick up unique and lovely address labels from our MABELS LABELS fundraiser!!
8. Group Activity — My friends and I do the same themed party every year. This year we prepared goodie bags with paper plates and cups, stickers, party snacks, and party drinks all on theme for that party, dropped them off at everyone’s houses, and we will all be signing into discord together to be “together” anyway! It took a couple of hours of driving, but it is worth it to see everyone’s smiles.
9. Group Album — Create an online album where you all share your pictures and videos with each other. You can send each other video notes, share your #BakingFails, show off your decorations, and sing carols at various volumes. At the end of the year you can make a montage to show how you were all really together, even apart.
PLEASE share some of your new traditions and twists on old favorites! We are happy to post them all. Any way we can help make this holiday season amazing, we are willing to try!
Much Much Love,
LJ and the Common Ground Family
#GiveFundsGiveTime: GIVING TUESDAY IS HERE
December 1st, 2020 is probably one of the strangest, loveliest, and most necessary Giving Tuesdays since its inception in 2012. The world is wracked by a pandemic. Unemployment has been at an all time high. An unmatched 12 named storms, including a record-tying six hurricanes, have made landfall in the United States this year alone.
We are quarantine-fatigued, decision-fatigued, anxiety-fatigued. Traditions are changed, family visits are reliant on internet connections.
It is in the midst of this unique adversity that we find our most profound strength, our brightest hope, our purest joy.
We have stood together, protecting one another with masks and distance. We have created new traditions out of whole cloth that will withstand the test of time. We have rallied around our small businesses, our schools, our communities to provide whatever support we can, even though it never seems like enough.
THAT is what our Giving Tuesday #GiveFundsGiveTime campaign has been all about.
We raised over $4,000.00 for our programs (and still have $3,000 of matching funds available!) and had such an incredible time doing it. If you are reading this on #GivingTuesday, you can still donate to our cause with double the impact HERE.
We had so much fun during the sleepover. Our kiddos left their best stuffed friends in care of Mr. Josh, Ms. Janette, Ms. Liz, and Ms. LJ, your CIRCLE TIME crew! We spent the evening dancing, singing, doing art, eating popcorn, and sending pictures/videos of the whole thing to the students while they were safe at home! APART DOES NOT MEAN ALONE, Friends and Families!
If you didn’t see the ridiculous good time that was our STUPENDOUS STUFFY SLEEPOVER, you are missing out… BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO MISS OUT NEXT TIME! We will be doing more of these.
You can download a copy of the one-of-a-kind stuffy sleepover coloring book where we featured each of the animals present (along with your circle time friends!)
Check out the fantastical highlights of our Stuffy Sleepover HERE.
This event was a perfect representation of the #GiveTime part of our campaign, what we consider to be the KEY and MOST VITAL part. We wanted to give our kids something to look forward to in uncertain times, to give them a new tradition that they can share with their friends no matter what is going on in the world outside. Each of us gave a little bit. Scrawl Books gave us ideas and goodies for our bags. Pal Dentistry gave us toothbrushes for our stuffys and instructions on how to keep our teeth healthy! We would also love to thank our local author Wayne Truax and family members Mary and Richard Badley for the wonderful addition of Mouse, The Man, and the MGB to our evening (and our goodiebags!)
Last, but not least, Our wonderful families gave us faith, time, money, and their happiness made our giving feel like receiving something warm and full of love.
We have written a lot in the last few weeks on how to Give Time to the people around you that matter, and we will continue to do so. This was just the jump start to our Giving Muscle Fitness Program! We want you to keep at it. Keep giving those five minutes a day. Give yourself five minutes because you are worth it. Give attention to your family for five minutes because you’ll suddenly find that it’s your favorite part of the day. Keep giving it until suddenly it’s seven minutes. Then ten. You will inspire others to do the same, and your reach will expand far beyond your wildest dreams.
We have dug deep into our hearts and not been found wanting. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for making #GivingTuesday2020 so incredible.
Love and Regards,
Ms. LJ
Thanksgiving, Keep it Small
Yesterday, I found myself listening to “The Daily'“ podcast from The New York Times during my lunch break.
I’ve been a daily listener to “The Daily” since the beginning of February. I had just purchased my new car, and with Apple CarPlay on board, I traded in my usual pop music for a Spotify curated playlist called “Your Daily Drive” that included music, a one minute stock market podcast, “The Daily”, “The Journal”, and “NPR News Now.”
Call it luck or coincidence, or maybe ‘the universe’ just had my back, or possibly the fact that its linked to my Facebook account means that they’re privy to my usage data - but it was just at that time that I was becoming more interested in what was happening in the world, reading more news stories and paying more attention to current events that Spotify suggested I trade my running podcasts for current event ones.
Yesterday’s episode was a good one! Michael had on reporter, Carl Zimmer, to talk about the Pfizer Vaccine breakthrough (you can take a listen here). But it wasn’t the vaccine mechanism and preparations, which frankly, “The Journal” - another podcast that I enjoy daily, had filled me in on the day before that struck me as so interesting. It was the conversation between Michael and Carl about Thanksgiving.
It starts with Michael saying “…I have to imagine this is an especially dangerous moment in the pandemic.”
Carl’s response begins with the word “Absolutely.” He goes on to share that he is worried about all the travel that could happen, the mixing of households, and the sinister mechanism of the virus itself - that you can feel well, attend a family event, and then discover that you were the person who infected your entire family.
Michael goes on to ask a very tough question, joking that Carl should channel is inner Donald G. McNeil Jr.:
Should people avoid traveling to see their families for Thanksgiving…all the big holidays that are happening this fall and winter?
Carl side steps giving a ‘McNeil’ answer and just says:
I’m not taking my family to see my parents for Thanksgiving.
Michael and Carl are in agreement on that - neither is going to travel the 2 and 3 hours to see their parents this holiday. They both agreed that neither feel that it is safe, but neither came out and told listeners that they shouldn’t travel this holiday season themselves.
This is what resonated with me - I know, it’s a pretty long background to get to this point. While I know that each family has their own risk tolerance, and I respect that there are differing opinions on what is viewed as ‘safe’ - I’m certain that every health expert would agree that traveling to or hosting a family gathering this holiday with people who you do not interact with regularly, is a bad idea.
Health experts are dancing around the issue because they know it’s a hard pill to swallow. They are offering advice for people who plan on ignoring the advice to stay home this Thanksgiving holiday:practice social distancing, wear masks, and move festivities outdoors.
But let’s face it - when you’re celebrating and enjoying time with people, especially if there is alcohol involved, you forget to be as strict as you’d like to be. Just look at how well we have been able to enforce social distance at Common Ground. Yes, each class is able to distance from one another, but within the classes - it’s almost impossible. In my opinion, if they’re outside and with their own pods, the kids are safe enough. It takes something away from the social value of being at the center if we are too hard on them when they are being so careful.
So, while we don’t have a policy on travel like some private schools/centers (yes, there is a school in Reston that requires a 14 day quarantine if you travel 2 hours away from the Northern Virginia area!), I’d like to point to our Community Pledge. Having your child in any center or school, or wanting them to return to school in person, is strongly in “Medium Risk” category. Everything else you do should fall to the left of that orange dot. This virus is not taking a break for Thanksgiving.
That doesn’t mean that this Holiday season can’t be fun! I think there are a lot of us out there focused on what we are “missing out on” this year. Certainly, things are not the same as they have been in years past, but it doesn’t mean that new traditions can’t be just as special. How many times, after spending the bulk of your holiday season traveling, have you wished for a fun weekend at home? Here’s your year to do it!
Have a ‘Staycation’ and treat the long holiday weekend as a trip! Only this time, you don’t waste any of your vacation hours on travel.
If you still want to get away, book a cabin or airbnb for just your family. Long story long, there are a lot of ways that we can celebrate the holidays and keep our community (and your families!) safe from COVID.
With that, I’ll leave you with a quote from Carl at the end of the podcast episode:
what we do now, will make a big difference in who lives and dies this winter
Stay home. Stay safe.
-Miss Liz
Policy Update: My child has a runny nose, now what?
The changing weather, cold and flu season, and fall allergies can all cause runny noses, but unfortunately, so can COVID.
*symptom free child used for demonstration purposes only
So what do you do when your child has a new, mild symptom, such as a runny nose?
Stay Home
Notify Common Ground
Make an Appointment with your child’s physician
Staying Home:
While this can seem like an inconvenience when you’re sure your child just has a typical cold, the health department has developed the policy that we are following with the goal of keeping schools open. It states that anyone (this includes staff members) who has any of the following symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, headache, congestion, runny nose, muscle aches, loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, tiredness, or poor appetite, be evaluated by a physician and a covid test is recommended. You can access the full illness policy and health department update here.
Notifying Common Ground:
We need to know when your kids are staying home and if they have any symptoms. By letting us know, it will help us remind you of what you need to do before you can return to Common Ground. We also track data, just in case we do have a case and have to contact trace.
Physician Evaluation:
The health department requires that a physician make an “Alternative Diagnosis” be made before your child can return. In most cases, this will require a COVID test.
We are all in this together.
This is the same policy that we are using for staff members as well as children. We are working to keep COVID out of our center through mitigation techniques outlined in our Community Pledge, and our illness policy is how we will keep a possible case contained.
But what if I don’t want to get my child evaluated by a physician?
You do not have to see a physician if you do not want to. However, if you choose to not seek an alternative diagnosis, you must wait 10 days from onset of symptoms before returning to Common Ground. Again, you can access the full illness policy and health department update here.