Tips for Reducing Back to School Worries
The long hazy days of summer are quickly dwindling and soon our children will be returning to their studies with excitement, and perhaps apprehension. A new school year means more than new sneakers and extra notebooks. It is a time to begin another new journey with your children, adjusting schedules, sharing new undertakings, and setting goals. Your kids might attend public, private, or online schools, or are perhaps home schooled like mine, but kids from all of these backgrounds can experience the dilemmas, nerves, and anxieties that accompany the back to school season. No matter where they study their alphabet or algebra, there are a few things we can do to help ease their worries and set them up for a successful year.
Start Dreaming
Sleep is one of the most important things our children need in order to be alert, participatory, and ready for their academic adventures. If your child has gotten into a summer sleep schedule of late nights and later mornings, it is important to begin adjusting their sleep schedules at least a week in advance of when they will need to rise and shine. Curb their bedtimes back 5-10 minutes each night and you can be back on track for sweet dreams in no time.
Be Healthy and Wise
Even though summer might feel like it is moving too fast and passing us by, once our kids are engrossed in their schoolwork and related activities time will seem even more fleeting. Take advantage of freer schedules now and get your kids in for last minute dental, vision, and hearing tests. Don’t wait to get a note from the teacher saying that your son is squinting at the board or you notice that he wrinkles his nose and holds the book closer every time he tries to read to you. Making sure your kids are on track with these important health issues will give them every opportunity to succeed with their learning.
Plan for Success
Take time to talk with your kids about what their hopes are for the year. Perhaps it will be to learn to read chapter books without pictures, to master Geometry class, or to make progress on the art portfolio your son has been working on for months. If you know what their goals are it will be so much easier to help provide the tools they will need to succeed. Goal setting is a great exercise to do with your kids, but don’t forget to help them develop a plan for achieving those goals.
Begin with a Bang
Start a new school year with a fun tradition. In our house every year I serve dinosaur shaped pancakes on the morning of the first day – a tradition that goes back to my own childhood. This goofy little breakfast bit is our way of making sure everyone is smiling (and usually because they are laughing about the less than artistic results I create on a griddle). The tradition doesn’t have to be filled with fanfare, but should be a small, meaningful moment everyone in the family can share.
As our children embark on another year of school, taking the time now to create positive and healthy environments and habits will go a long way to supporting their efforts this year. There are several small things you can do before school starts to make the year goes more smoothly.
- Have pictures taken now to avoid the dreaded school picture mishap of outrageous hair or spaghetti sauce chin. The pictures will also be ready in plenty of time for the holidays, serving a double duty and cutting the costs.
- Adjust summer television and computer habits before the first day of school so your kids don’t go through withdrawal. If they are used to watching an hour of television each day, but during the school year will only be allowed 30 minutes, start that plan early so the new schedule doesn’t add to the 1st day tension.
- Invest in a family calendar and keep it where everyone can see the schedule. An ideal kind has a column for each member of the family, and a row for each day. Everyone can add their schedules and in the craziness of practices and clubs, parents can more easily map out a strategy for getting everyone where they need to be when the schedule is laid out before them.
- Clean off bookshelves in the home and donate those that your kids have outgrown or no longer want to local charities.
- Make sure your child has a clean study space, whether that is the beanbag chair in the corner or the desk in her room, a quiet place for jumping into a book will be beneficial.
- Grab a plastic storage bin you can keep in the backseat and fill it with a few extras for days on the run with kids. Granola bars, bottled water, gum, extra pens, pencils and a sharpener, along with an extra notebook can come in handy while waiting in between practices after school.
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