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From the Oregon Health Authority healthoregon.org/coronavirus

Helping kids get comfortable with masks

There is a lot of uncertainty about school right now. Some kids are in virtual school. Other children attend in person a few hours a week. And some are on campus full time. This uncertainty is especially difficult for young children, and focusing on what you know your kids can expect may help them adjust to our new normal.

One thing is clear: Kids will be wearing masks at school.

Oregon pediatricians at the Oregon Pediatric Society offer advice for parents on helping kids with mask wearing. Here are five tips that may help accustom your toddlers and young children to masking up:

Start early: Introduce masks well ahead of when you think your child will be required to wear them. Consider starting by simply having masks around the home and pointing out their presence. Next steps can be encouraging children to touch, explore, and play with the masks.

Make it familiar: Parents and older siblings can wear masks around the house or put them on stuffed animals and dolls to make them more familiar.

Make it fun: Provide masks with fun patterns or pictures and let your child choose the mask they wear before going out.

Be honest: Even for young children you can say something like “Okay, time to put our mask on to make sure we all stay safe.”

Be consistent: Easy places to start are everywhere outside the home (“Whenever we go inside somewhere that is not our home, we wear a mask”) or every time entering an indoor public space (“Okay, we’re going inside now, time to put on our mask.”).

The complete article is on the Oregon Pediatric Society webpage. They also have a great video on kids masking up:
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