During the past several months, teachers and families have been creatively meeting the many challenges brought on by the pandemic. Regardless of whether children are learning in-person, remotely, or a hybrid of the two, teachers and families are doing their level best to cultivate learning environments where children can be curious learners who feel supported.Despite their best efforts, adults and children alike are under immense stress during these uncertain times. Finding ways to promote social-emotional learning of young children is vital now, more than ever before. To ensure that PreK children are confident and ready to successfully transition to Kindergarten, social-emotional learning must be a key focus for both teachers and families. Children are social, and being social is how they learn many critical social-emotional skills. But due to the pandemic, many children have limited access to socializing with other children in person. If children are unable to safely socialize with others in-person, leverage technology so that they can be social virtually. Try setting up regular FaceTime calls, Google Meets, or Zoom sessions with other children as well as family members. Like any playdate, schedule it in advance and be sure to decide on a start and end time. Practice using the meeting platform with your child, and teach him/her how to use the controls so they are more comfortable during the call. Consider using social stories to demonstrate how to interact appropriately online. There are lots of fun playdate activities that your child can do virtually. Try some of these activities: