Smart strategies for easing into school term
September sees the start of school term for millions of children. And for millions of parents it means planning the change of routine from school vacation to being uber organised every morning in the rush to get out of the house. Here’s a few strategies to help you and a link to some handy videos to help too!
1. Start the morning routine 2 days before
Getting up early on the first day back at work is hard, you’ve had a routine where you’ve let yourself sleep in for a bit longer and then all of a sudden you have to set the alarm clock. This is no different for children, they have just had the holidays where they have been living their lives and enjoying a whole range of activities and now you wake them up early, they have to put on their school clothes, eat breakfast and go out the door. Try taking away some of the pain from the first day of school by waking your children up early a few days before, have a couple of family breakfasts and savour the last couple of days reliving your summer holiday memories as a family.
2. Do the school bag/lunch the night before
This applies to adults and children, if you have things lined up by the door, lunch in the refrigerator and the school bag packed, then it reduces the amount of things you have to try and remember in the morning. The first day of school is always chaotic, so the more you can take out of it the better.
3. Set routines that you can keep going, don’t be over ambitious and do things that realistically you can only do for a few days
The best diets work with small changes, the best health regimes begin with a regular 5 or 10 minutes of exercises that become daily rituals. The same is true of any change within a family. You wouldn’t do a 1000 piece jigsaw in one sitting, so don’t try and change your whole family’s routine all at once. Say you want to ride bikes to school, then don’t say you’ll do it every day as you will fail the first time it rains. Instead agree as a family that you will do it once a week; that way if you cycle twice, then you are beating your family goal!
4. If your child is anxious about new class/teacher then concentrate on what friends they are going to see
If we’re worried about something and people keep talking about it then it only gets worse! Instead concentrate on the things they do enjoy about school and what they are looking forward to. Maybe it’s seeing their best friend, maybe it’s a favourite teacher, whatever it is you want to fill their brain with looking forward to seeing them, leaving less brain space for being anxious about what is worrying them.
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