The start of a new school year brings on a whole lot of new things; new friends, new school, new teachers, new schedules, new books and new learning experiences. For Pre-K kids, this can be quite overwhelming. While some kids may find the thought of going to school exciting, others may be a little nervous and scared. This is also a very stressful time for parents, especially Pre-K parents, as putting your kids in a learning environment for the first time has its own apprehensions.
All kids are a little sad at the end of summer break. Here are some great pointers to kiss the back-to-school blues goodbye:
Fun shopping for school:
To build up the excitement of going back to school, take your kids on a shopping spree. Apart from purchasing the essential supplies that they require, let them splurge in cool and fun school supplies as well. This could be a school bag of their favorite cartoon or super heroes’ character, funky stationery or new clothes. Pre-k kids could also practice with new school supplies such as crayons, play dough etc. so that they are excited about school and also become familiar with holding pencils and making shapes.
Break the holiday sleep cycle:
Kids have probably gotten used to going to bed late at nights and sleeping through most part of the morning. Getting them back into the routine of waking up early is a good idea. So a week or two before school starts, practice going to bed on time and waking up early in the morning. This will get their body clocks back on track and will result in a less chaotic first day at school after summer break.
Meet the teacher:
Contact your child’s new teacher before the start of school, as this will give you an opportunity to get to know her as well as give you a chance to tell her a little about your child. If your child requires special attention now is a good time to share this with the new teacher. Take advantage of open houses at schools to encourage kids to familiarize themselves with their new teachers and classroom. Doing this could get kids more excited about going back to school.
Sign up for fun!
Schools offer a lot of extracurricular activities for kids such as sports, music, art etc. Getting your kids enrolled in these activities will give them something to look forward to other than just studies. Choose something that they have an interest in so as to build up their excitement of school days ahead.
Following these good tips will surely help reduce the stress of sending kids back to school. Keep an open communication with your children by talking to them about school and what bothers and excites them. Bring back memories of the friends they made. Remind them of the things that they enjoyed the most in the previous year and hope for a great academic year ahead.
At RARE Learning, Pre-K programs focus on a lot of personal attention towards kids and this plays a major role in reducing the stress factor for parents. The programs at RARE Learning have a low teacher student ratio and a personalized curriculum that emphasizes on individual attention for each child. Another specialty of Rare Learning is that they provide parents with a day-to-day progress report. At the end of each class, kids can take their work home so that parents can see their daily progress. Parents are thus reassured that their child is being productive every day.
