Curious Parents Education Resources

Back to School

10 Tips to Ease the BACK to SCHOOL JITTERS

It’s normal for kids to have some worries at the beginning of the new school year or to simply feel bummed that the summer is coming to an end. Fortunately, there is a lot parents can do to help smooth this transition and minimize stress and build a child’s optimism and resilience.

1. Share “Best of” Stories From Last Year: Help your child to remember and talk about his or her favorite moments from last year: fun he had in the school play, getting to read the morning announcements over the PA, building an active volcano. Ask questions about these experiences so that your child has a chance to vividly remember what he liked about school last year. This will help him to feel more confident about the new year.

2. Make a What I Like About My School Poster: Work with your child to cut out pictures, write words and glue on decorations that show what your child likes about his school. You can even add a photocopy of his class picture from last year to help remind him of the faces he’ll be seeing again soon.

3. End of Summer Party: The end of the summer is a great time to reconnect with friends that your child hasn’t seen for a while. Going back to the school year with those connections strong will minimize anxiety. Have an “End of Summer Party” where your child invites a few friends from last year, particularly those he or she hasn’t seen in a while. They can swap stories from the summer, talk about the upcoming year and simply have time to relax and enjoy each other.

4. Rehearse the First Day: A few days before school starts, mentally walk through the first day of school with your child. Describe together when your child will wake up, what she wants to wear, what she wants to have for breakfast, etc. Knowing and rehearsing the morning routine often calms nerves and makes the real day go more smoothly.

5. Play at School: Many kids find it helpful to spend an hour or two playing at the school playground before school starts for the year. This gives them a chance to reorient themselves to the school and to have fun in the playground that they will shortly be visiting daily. Bring a school friend along to help make it more fun and strengthen friendship connections.

6. One Fact a Day (for the first week or two): Give your child the challenge of learning one new fact a day about a classmate. For kids your child knows well, this might mean finding out about something a friend did over the summer. For kids your child doesn’t yet know, it might mean learning basic facts like where the classmate lives and how many brothers and sisters she has. Every day when your child comes home from school, ask for the new daily fact. This activity helps your child get to know her classmates and this is a solid start to building new friendships.

7. School Successes Box:  You and your child can decorate a shoe box and label it “School Successes.” During the first few weeks of school, ask your child to write on a note card one success from the day–making a new friend, hitting a home run in gym, answering a question correctly in class. Ask your child to read it to you and then put it in the box. At the end of the first few weeks, you can take them out and paste them in a scrapbook so that your child can remember the positive beginning to the new year.

8. Homework Space Makeover: Creating an appealing space for your child to do his homework can help minimize the stress of and maximize homework completion. Ask your child to help you design his homework space and work together to make it clean, bright and quiet. Encourage your child to decorate the space so that it’s a place he likes to be. Sometimes, creating a quiet space means getting creative and moving some furniture so your child has a quiet nook in a common room.

9. Back to School Ritual: You can help your child through the transition from summer to the new school year by having a predictable, enjoyable activity that they can look forward to. Together, you and your child can come up with something simple, fun and relaxing that you can do together each day or evening for a few days before school starts and through the first couple of weeks of the new school year. Depending on the age and interests of your child, the ritual can range from enjoying a before bed glass of milk and healthful snack to taking a walk around the neighborhood to sharing funny stories from when you were a child.

10. After School Fun Things List: Make a list with your child of one fun thing that he can do each day after school (e.g., play basketball at park, ride a bike with friend, go for walk with mom, etc.). Tape the list to the wall or hang it on the refrigerator so that your child can see it. Having something fun to look forward to after school can help make those first long days of school easier on your child.

Courtesy of Goldfish Fishful Thinking.