VOA 《Let's hop on our bikes: US kids get active during times of covid》

The group simply rides bikes together with social distancing in mind.

Parents who mostly work from home because of the pandemic are thrilled that their children are using their times in a healthy manner

and providing them with a much needed break at home.

请教老师：上面几句话，有几点不明白。

social distancing 中distancing是动名词吗？ 似乎也有social distance这个词组，这二者使用和含义上有差别吗？

另外，顺便问一下为什么是their times, 而不是their time ? a much needed break中needed是形容词还是被动语态呢？词典上找不到needed这个词。

如果是needed是形容词，为什么不用very来修饰？这里用much修饰不懂。