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Jul. 19th, 2020 06:10 pmGot home from my Pokémon drive this afternoon on time to catch Mom on the tail end of her walk with Chester. She was interacting with a family, two parents and a little one, right across the street from our house; all the adults were wearing homemade masks, but the kidlet wasn't. Having been metaphorically smacked upside the head with the notion that not a lot of folks are even making kid-sized masks a week or two ago, I'd dug up a pattern and thrown a few together out of scraps from the adult-sized masks I'd already made, and kept two in the car for Just In Case scenarios. I figured this was possibly the perfect opportunity, so I slapped on some hand sanitizer, grabbed the masks, and offered one to the family.
Unfortunately, but perhaps predictably, the kiddo was not interested in wearing the mask (even though the weather today is considerably nicer than yesterday's fog-your-glasses-even-without-a-mask over-90°F high-humidity crap). I let the parents take the mask home with them, and was left contemplating mask distribution, and how to motivate kids to wear them, especially on the younger side.
My first thought was: Superheroes! Superheroes are already well known for wearing masks, and are very popular with kids. Sadly, not too many Western superheroes wear masks that cover the bottom of their face; I can think of Silk, one of the spider-themed Marvel heroes, and I don't doubt that there are more, but that was all I could come up with. (Well, and Rivka from Shira Glassman's Mangoverse, AKA "Captain Riv", but she's not even close to well known as a lot of other superheroes, and probably wouldn't count for a lot of people anyway.) I had just decided to put out a call on Tumblr for more superhero examples that kids might recognize when the perfect idea hit: Ninjas!
Ninjas are still super popular with kids, and they usually cover the bottom of their face while leaving their eyes uncovered, and the concept of ninjas is easy enough to communicate. So my current thought is to put together ziplock bags with masks inside, and include a coloring page of a ninja that the kid can color to match their mask! Ninjas are fast and sneaky, and their masks can help them be sneaky enough to outfox even that horrible coronavirus, as long as they use them right!
I think it has potential 🤞
Unfortunately, but perhaps predictably, the kiddo was not interested in wearing the mask (even though the weather today is considerably nicer than yesterday's fog-your-glasses-even-without-a-mask over-90°F high-humidity crap). I let the parents take the mask home with them, and was left contemplating mask distribution, and how to motivate kids to wear them, especially on the younger side.
My first thought was: Superheroes! Superheroes are already well known for wearing masks, and are very popular with kids. Sadly, not too many Western superheroes wear masks that cover the bottom of their face; I can think of Silk, one of the spider-themed Marvel heroes, and I don't doubt that there are more, but that was all I could come up with. (Well, and Rivka from Shira Glassman's Mangoverse, AKA "Captain Riv", but she's not even close to well known as a lot of other superheroes, and probably wouldn't count for a lot of people anyway.) I had just decided to put out a call on Tumblr for more superhero examples that kids might recognize when the perfect idea hit: Ninjas!
Ninjas are still super popular with kids, and they usually cover the bottom of their face while leaving their eyes uncovered, and the concept of ninjas is easy enough to communicate. So my current thought is to put together ziplock bags with masks inside, and include a coloring page of a ninja that the kid can color to match their mask! Ninjas are fast and sneaky, and their masks can help them be sneaky enough to outfox even that horrible coronavirus, as long as they use them right!
I think it has potential 🤞
