FIGHTING
BACK TO SCHOOL BLUES
Are your kids running
for cover when they hear it is back-to-school
time? It doesn’t have to be a drudge. With
these five tips, you can help put your children back on
track without tears.
1.
Ease back into a school schedule. During
the summer, children have the freedom to sleep later,
causing a domino affect on their mealtime
schedules and performance peaks. Talk to
your child about school time changes. Your children are
older now and you may need to adjust last year’s times.
In my home, my oldest son now prefers getting up earlier
for a shower. My younger son wants to linger in bed for
the last possible moment and prefers a bedtime bath. At
least a week before school starts, agree to start shifting
the bedtime and wake up times closer to a school-day schedule.
With these changes, you may need to adjust mealtimes. If
your child is in elementary school, plan
for a snack that would mirror snack time in the school.
 2.
Check with your child’s school for the supplies
he may need and buy early. Involve
your child in the selection process. This
can make school shopping fun and get him excited especially
if he has the opportunity to choose the color of binders
and maybe that special pen he thinks will improve
his penmanship. Lunchboxes can be an added thrill
– but if your child
is moving into middle school, be sure to check with an older
student. We found that the special Harry
Potter lunchbox was an embarrassment for my son when he
discovered that the “older” kids bring their
lunches in brown paper lunch bags. Don’t forget about
shopping for new clothes. Chances are the jeans and jackets
that fit in the spring don’t fit now. You don’t
have to give your child an open wallet, just offer
some choices that you can afford that help him feel special
on that first week back.
 3.
Attend your
child’s back to school day. Most schools
have a special day set aside as an opportunity for students
to go in early to meet their teacher (s). This is a great
time to help your child find the right classroom on the
first day of school and to find out if he has any friends
in his class. Meet the teacher and find out about
learning activities for the upcoming year as well as field
trips. Nothing excites
children more than hearing about the special trips they
can expect to go on. It’s also a good
time to discover pointers on how best to guide your child’s
studies at home. Find out if his teacher has a website that
you can visit for homework assignments. Most importantly,
find out how you can volunteer to help out in the classroom,
on fieldtrips, and in the school. Some schools such
as Wake County Public School System have implemented a new
volunteer screening procedure that includes completing an
application and depending on your involvement, may
require a background check. These forms must be
completed and approved in advance to the time you are planning
to be in the child’s classroom or chaperoning field
trips.
4.
Set
up a calendar and filing system area in your home.
By our backdoor, we have a bulletin board that has areas
for each day of the week where we can post the needs and
activities for that day. There is a special place to hang
a calendar that shows the month at-a-glance activities that
may require prior planning. In our home office, we have
a separate cabinet that has folders
for each child labeled “to be signed”, “to
school”, and “from school.”
This makes it easy for our boys to empty out their backpacks
and file their papers in the folder that will get my quickest
attention. It also helps with the morning rush in
knowing what may need to go back to the teacher.
In our cabinet, we also keep a supply of paper, pens, pencils,
and other assortment of items they may need at a moments
notice.
5.
Review
grade and performance expectations. Pull
out the previous year’s report card and look for trends
in your child’s performance. Work with your child
in determining what your expectations are with grades and
behavior. Set the grade bar high enough that it
is achievable, but not so high as to cause frustration if
he doesn’t meet it. In all these ways and
more, let your child know you are on his side. Get involved.
Stay positive. Your attitude can go a long way towards keeping
your child excited about school and doing well. |
Liza
has been writing parenting columns and articles for almost a decade. She
takes all the wads of education news that come home in her children’s
backpacks, in the mail, on the news, sifting them down to easy-to-read
features and parenting tips that appear regularly in The Cary News, News
and Observer and PTA newsletters in Wake County. 