Plus, teaching quiet heroism, deepening fatherhood, how clouds help, Mola Mola!
|  | Sunday, June 21, 2020 | | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEXI ROSENFELD, GETTY IMAGES | | By Rachel Buchholz, KIDS AND FAMILY Editor in Chief
I try to have a weekly gathering with my team every Friday afternoon, a virtual acknowledgement that we’ve made it through another quarantined week. Inevitably at least one cat jumps up on a laptop, one dog barks in the background, and one child manages to pop in right as someone’s saying something inappropriate. (It is Friday afternoon, after all.)
But out of all the surprises, the one I love the most is when the reserved, stoic gentleman of the team suddenly reaches out and plops a squirmy kid on his lap, not bothering to mute the giggles or squeals as we all watch him turn from a detail-oriented director into, well, a dad.
Fathers have made great strides over the last 50 years, tripling the amount of time they spend on childcare even as they worry they’re not spending enough. And the fact that millions of fathers have been at home during the pandemic might signal a shift to even greater gender equality at home, as both parents work together to manage employment, school, and—especially—safety.
Keeping kids safe is obviously top of mind for both parents as summer officially begins and states slowly reopen. But the reality is that COVID-19 hasn’t gone anywhere. “The virus doesn’t take a summer vacation,” says physician Joshua Sharfstein in a Nat Geo article about navigating kid-safety as more activities open up. “It’s not a moment to totally let down your guard.”
So can you take your kids to playgrounds? Pools? Restaurants? According to the experts, the same rules we’ve been hearing for months still apply: Masks matter. Outside, with caveats, is better than inside. Actual social distancing is a must. (Got another tip for keep your child safe? Tell us!) Perhaps physician Marissa Levine says it best:. “We have to learn to live with COVID. But there are ways we can do that safely.”
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 | | PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUZI ESZTERHAS, MINDEN PICTURES, GETTY IMAGES | | Don’t be like animal dads: Well, most of them anyway. They’ve acquired a reputation for having a kind of love-’em-and-leave-’em attitude and are even known to, uh, get rid of other males’ offspring if a certain female catches their eye. But the animal kingdom actually has a few dads worth celebrating this Father’s Day, as noted in in the Nat Geo book Amazing Animal Dads. Like the emperor penguin that holds an egg on his feet for two months or the common marmoset that keeps his babies on his back for the first weeks of their lives.
These dads open up: We asked some of the world’s top photographers about what fatherhood means. They responded with images, of course, and tenderness. Italian photographer Andrea Frazzetta, who lost his mother in the pandemic, has been rethinking what it means to be a father—and rebuilding a relationship with his own dad. Fatherhood, he says, “has taught me fear and courage at the same time, and realigned the values of my life.”
Family discussion: With a pandemic and nationwide protests over police brutality and race, what can one person do to make things better? Sometimes it’s good to surface a role model, even someone the kids probably wouldn’t know. In spring 1957, Maurice Hilleman saw a nasty pandemic brewing in Hong Kong. The virologist developed a vaccine and got out 40 million doses before it hit U.S. shores that fall, saving millions of American kids’ lives. Here’s our story.
Turning bad news into a teachable moment: When the statue of tennis legend Arthur Ashe was defaced in Richmond last week, we turned to two quotes from the African American pioneer that may be worth sharing with your family. “True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost," he once said. Here’s a more succinct quote: "From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life." Curious kids (and parents) can learn more here about the former Wimbledon champ and fighter against apartheid.
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY © SAM74100, DREAMSTIME | |
Get their heads in the clouds. Lazily watching clouds sounds pretty good right about now. And health experts say that this activity could help improve kids’ mental health, especially as they deal with stress from the ongoing pandemic. That fight-or-flight instinct is on all the time now, according to Megan Tudor of the University of California Davis MIND Institute in this Nat Geo article. “We have to give children a chance to turn it off, to just relax,” she says. “And cloud watching is perfect for that.” She offers activities that will help inspire creativity and calmness in kids (and might inspire STEM learning as well).
Get their heads—and yours—in the stars: Today marks the summer solstice, the once-a-year astronomical alignment that ushers in seasonal change, and here’s a quick look at the facts and myths around it. Earlier today, a ring of fire solstice eclipse occurred in southern Asia and central Africa, an event where the moon lined up between the Earth and the sun. During maximum eclipse, “a stunning, thin-ring of the sun remains visible around the disk of the moon,” says author Andrew Fazekas, who has written this article for us on observing the heavens with your kids.
We asked, you answered. What are you doing to keep your family weekends special? Plenty! Ideas ranged from team cooking—in which one parent-and-kid team cooked while the other team took a break outside (alternating every weekend)—to puppet shows before Sunday dinner to retro movie nights with homemade cookies.
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| TRY THIS: BOREDOM BUSTERS FOR KIDS | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY NICK GORDON, NPL, MINDEN PICTURES | | Keeping kids’ brains active: Forget the ugly tie—give Dad the gift of your kid’s attention today. Have them check out this photo gallery of Animal Fathers of the Year together, or challenge them see who knows more about wild dads with this fun quiz. Too late for breakfast in bed? Check out these kid-friendly recipes from the Nat Geo Kids Cookbook so kids can make a celebratory Fathers Day lunch, dinner, or snack. Still need a gift? Maybe this metal detector for kids will help children dig up something precious.
A coast-to-coast road trip your kids could take (from home): Check out this fun interactive trip that Nat Geo’s Craig Welch and David Guttenfelder took in an electric car, from the Santa Monica boardwalk on the Pacific to our nation’s capital, with plenty of surprises along the way.
Mola Mola: That’s another name for sunfish, and this stunning school of Mola Mola wowed a field trip in Monterrey, California, last weekend. Looking for more animals? Nat Geo subscribers can see this interactive on how the elusive snow leopard stays alive—by adapting to one of Earth’s most extreme environments.
Check out more summer fun learning ideas. This week, NatGeo@Home will have tons of kid-friendly jokes, a craft to make a super-bouncy ball, and a photo gallery that will inspire your kids to eat their vegetables. Plus, we’ll have advice for parents on how to help their children have successful playdates.
This newsletter was edited and curated by David Beard and Rachel Buchholz. Have a healthy and a sane (as possible) week ahead! | | | |
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