Back-to-School Tips for Parents

Aug 18

How to handle the transition back to school like a boss…and get back into your routine with ease.

Ready or not, back-to-school time is here. And if summer break in your house looked anything like ours, getting back into the routine of regular bedtimes, homework and early wake up calls can be a harsh reality…both for the kids… and the parents! If you took full advantage of staying up late, playing outside after dark, countless movie nights, and sleeping in, here are a few tips for getting back into your back-to-school routine with ease.

Back to school prep for parents and kids can lead to a successful school year.

How to Prep for Success

Schedule Playdates to Reconnect with Friends

Seeing a familiar face can make all the difference when heading back to school. If your kid(s) haven’t seen their friends from school all summer, reach out to parents you know from school and schedule playdates or a group meet-up so the kid(s) can get re-oriented to each other before school begins. Once you find out who your child’s teacher is, connect with the parents you know to see if your child already has a friend in his/her class. Knowing they have a friend in class will help with those first day jitters. In fact, according to John Hopkins Medicine, “Research shows that the presence of a familiar peer during school transitions can improve children’s academic and emotional adjustment.”

Tour the School

If your school hosts an open house or orientation day, take advantage of this opportunity to familiarize your child with the school campus. Try to find your child’s classroom, lunch area and explore the playground/recess area so they have some sense of direction and know where to go on the first day of school. If there is a chance to meet the teacher and see your student’s desk, that will help ease the fear of the unknown. With an older child, you might ask them to give you a tour of the school. This will help refresh their memory and remind them how comfortable they already are at school.

Build Your Village

It’s inevitable that during the course of the school year, you may find yourself in a bind from time-to-time and need a hand with school pick-ups, drop-offs, or after school care. Reach out to a few parents in your neighborhood to form a carpool and create a schedule to alternate pick ups and drop offs. Or, if you have a full-time job and need help after school, inquire about after school programs on campus or check with your local YMCA or Boys and Girls Club. If you want something more personalized, check out June Care. It’s a new service that matches working moms with stay-at-home moms who can help with school pick-ups and aftercare. All their host parents are background checked and have their own kids with them, so your child can meet a new friend in your neighborhood.

When it comes to back to school, it can feel like the mornings are a fast sprint to get lunches packed, kids dressed and fed, and out the door in time for the school bell. Since every minute counts, we’ve compiled a few tips to get you to school, on time and with less stress!

School Lunches - Make mornings a little easier on yourself by taking a few minutes to meal prep on Sunday before the week begins. Wash and cut up the fruit, veggies, cheese, and protein and stack in tupperwares so it’s easy to grab and assemble the school lunches. Get the lunch boxes out the night before and add all the dry snacks so you only need to add refrigerated items the morning of. Have a picky eater? Create homemade bento boxes or snack kabobs to make lunchtime fun. Your kids will be surprised and it may entice them to eat if they are feeling those back-to-school butterflies.

What to Wear - Getting the kids dressed in the morning often feels like a hurdle to getting out the door on time. If your little fashionista(s) have strong opinions on what they wear (like mine do), have them lay out their outfits the night before so it’s easy to get dressed in the morning. That way, the kid(s) get to choose their outfit and parents get a chance to approve it ahead of time, eliminating wardrobe disagreements in the morning.

The Early Bird Gets to School on Time - Waking up the kids in the morning often feels like waking a bear out of hibernation, so I like to enlist a “mommy’s helper” to help the kids wake up on their terms. The Amazon Echo has an alarm function so your kids can also ask Alexa to wake them up at 7 AM, in the voice of their favorite character, or to a song they love. The Echo Dot Kids comes with parental controls, so parents can set a time limit and it comes in panda or a tiger shapes, so they look adorable too. If your kid(s) haven’t started back to school, start to enforce an earlier bedtime the week before school starts. Move up bedtime by 5 minutes each night so that by the end of the week, they are going to bed at the same time they would normally go to bed before their school day. It will make the first-day wake up call a little less shocking.

First Day Jitters

Remind your child that feeling worried or getting butterflies in the tummy are totally normal and that many other students feel the same way that she/he is feeling. “Validate the child’s worry by acknowledging that, like any new activity, starting school can be hard but soon becomes easy and fun.” according to John Hopkins Medicine. Here are a few tips to help manage back-to-school anxiety, according to the Child Mind Institute:

First, check in with yourself. Kids can tell if you’re nervous about school starting, so managing your own stress is a good way to help them feel calm too.
Be sure to really listen to kids’ worries. Often, kids just need a little validation (“I know how hard it is to get to know a new teacher”) to feel better. You can also help them make plans for handling anything specific they’re worried about.
When your child does get through the tough moment of separation, be sure to praise them later: “Great job heading straight to class this morning!” Come up with a prize or a rewarding activity that the child could earn for separating from mom or dad to attend school.