Why it matters: Your children will probably be excited, nervous or anxious about the new school start. Having parents or carers in a panic trying to figure out if its PE or Forest School that day, or frantically labelling clothes and lunch boxes, while trying not to be late for the first day, is not going to help anyone. Your stress will make you more impatient and that will make it harder to manage their big emotions.
Dig out the newsletters and emails you have been ignoring, or head to the parent group Whatsapp to find out what you need on the day (and for the week).
Hopefully by now you have uniform, lunch boxes, stationery, school bags and whatever else is needed - if not, go get those things! You likely won’t need everything on day 1, so don’t stress. Remember that your stress, will just add to their feelings of anxiety if it seems like back to school is a huge deal and everything is going wrong. These are the times want to be like beautiful swans gliding on the water, even if we are frantically flapping our feet below the surface with everything that needs doing for back to school
Add all the upcoming school events to your calendar with reminders that happen at least one weekend before anything is due to allow time to buy/make things.
Age specific practical tips:
Under 3s Get a school bag ready with your child. Let them pick the spare clothes that go in, where the water bottle is kept and which one you will use. All of these small acts work towards making fewer decisions on the day and things going more smoothly.
Age 4-8 Model being organised to your kids. Download all the newsletters and make a to do list with them. Go out and get anything you don’t already have but need for school day 1. Write a schedule to keep on the fridge of whats on each day at school. We have a monthly magnetic calendar stuck to the fridge with all events that month, and a weekly calendar that has sports/hobbies listed. Create a post it note or mini schedule to pin to their wardrobe for what needs to be worn and packed each day, or label piles of clothes with Mon-Fri to make them easy to find everyday
Age 8+ Make a to do list with your kids covering everything that needs preparing in advance of school and checking they have everything they need. Ask them to make a weekly schedule so they know what to wear and what to pack each day. All of this forms an important part of developing their self-regulation skills (monitoring and managing thoughts and behaviour)
Day 3 Checklist
🔲 Get yourself organised so that your stress doesn’t add to your kids anxieties on the day
🔲 Encourage age appropriate levels of independence - like deciding on clothes or kit to take to nursery/school
🔲 Keep schedules easily available for everyone so there is no scrambling around on the day
Day 4: Still feeling overwhelmed? Tomorrow we look at ways to reduce the mental load
Quick one: I am launching PASS (Parenting for Academic Support and Success) an evidence-based guide to raising kids who love to learn. Know how much you should be reading to them? When to stop? How to support maths and science? What keeps kids curious? This will be everything you need for supporting kids 5-10 with education.
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