More and more daycares and kids camps have reopened in Toronto in the past several days, with kids leaving the safety of their home... and mingling with kids again.
While parents get to breathe a sigh of relief, even for a minute, the return to a level of "normal" is doing wonders for the kids.
They just seem happier again.
And there's something to that.
"Psychologically, we know about the health worries and all of that, but certainly psychologically, there is no doubt," says Steve Joordans, a proffessor of psychology at the UofT. "Most children when they are school aged, that is when their social instincts kick in."
And he says that comes with practice interacting with children their own age.
"Learning just werid little skills like introducing yourself or entering into play that other children are doing, these all require sublte interactions and behaviours, that the child only learns by doing," says Joordans.
But he's not saying as we head towards the fall, that we reopen schools without any restrictions in place. That will be the difficult balancing act.
"I'm literally one of those people of two minds, where I think it's critical psychologically, and dangerous physically, and I just hope we can get a handle on the physical part so we can actually allow the children to do what they need to be doing."