‘Can’t Catch Me’: Chilliwack music instructor teaches kids about COVID-19 through song

CHILLIWACK (NEWS 1130) — A Chilliwack-based music teacher is helping kids understand how to stay safe amid this pandemic through a song and dance she created.

Debra Krol started composing songs based on children’s books when the pandemic forced her to close her music studio for infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers in the Chilliwack Mall.

Each week, she posts a video online to stay connected with her students.

“I’m so thankful that I’m still able to touch them with my music, even though I’m not actually able to teach them in person they’re still seeing and learning from me,” she says.

Each “Sing me a Story” installment starts with reading the book aloud. An original song — complete with dance moves — follows.

Her most recent adaptation is of the book How to Defeat the Icky, Filthy, Creepy, Slimy CORONA MONSTER!”

“The story starts out with some ways that we can help protect ourselves from the Corona Monster. We can wash our hands, we need space, social distancing, and then it talks about thanking the first responders, and the nurses and the doctors for keeping everybody safe,” she explains.

“It’s a wonderful story that really captures the whole way life is now. Of how we have to adapt to this new situation and it helps kids to kind of move forward and feel comfortable, and know it’s okay, that life will get back to normal. But for right now we have to be careful.”

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Krol’s song is called “Can’t Catch Me” and it teaches kids the lessons we’ve all had to learn as we adapt to the new normal ushered in by COVID-19.

But the first thing she urges the kids to do is to run from the monster. Not because running is a way to fend off the virus — just because it’s something kids love to do.

The verse about hand-washing was crafted to help little ones do a thorough job of washing theirs by making sure the soap gets “good and bubbly.”

“A lot of times when kids wash their hands, they don’t do it for long enough, or they don’t get all the nooks and crannies. So I tried to tie in enough time so that you could sing the verse while you were washing your hands,” Krol says.

The verse about social distancing asks kids to put their arms out and twirl.

“It just kind of gives them a real visual grasp on how much space you actually need,” she notes.

Connecting with kids through song is what Krol loves to do most.

“My real passion lies with teaching young children, with their imaginations and their creativity and their total passion for learning. They’re like little sponges, they just want to absorb everything that you’re teaching them and to participate.”

In addition to offering advice on how to stay safe, Krol says singing and dancing are important outlets for kids who may not be able to express their anxieties as they watch the world around them change due to COVID-19.

“It really is a therapy.”