Prepare your kids for the new class

Your kid is not ready for the new class?

If your kids are starting school for the first time or heading towards next class or new school then this post is for you. Here are few points to consider:

1. Ensure your kid knows about the school.

If your kid has not migrated to a different school, then it would help a lot. Now you only need to discuss the differences about this year.

• Now that you are in 1st grade, you will have a bigger playground.

• You will have homework daily.

• We will start drawing activities this year.

In case it’s their first year at the school, it would be great if you take a trip to school with your kid. If you are allowed to checkout the school premises then start with the playground, it is a great place to make a bond with school and your kid would love it.

Checkout the classrooms, washrooms, activity area along with your kids and explain about every place, it will make them feel secure when you would not be present there. It overcomes the fear of unknown for kids.

2. Be a part of school orientation.

• • Mostly schools arrange orientation program for younger grades. Just in case the school doesn’t have any program, you can ask the school to meet the new teachers for a short time. It helps the kids to get comfortable with their new teachers.

3. Help your kid in making a bond with the teacher.

Kids who feel comfortable with their teachers are more open to learn faster and get emotionally attached to their school. They like the new teachers if you make them feel familiar with them.

Once your kid is familiar with the new teachers, your priority changes to think about studies and activities. Encourage them to draw a picture of their teacher or ask them to take some fruit to the teacher, it will make the teacher familiar with the kid.
If you don’t feel the bond, then don’t hesitate to contact the teacher.

4. Help them in making new friends at school.

Kids are nervous about visiting new places without parents. School is the most important place for every kid, but if they have friends at that place, it would make them feel easy.

If you are new in town, then you should make extra attempts to help your kids meeting the nearby kids. Schools encourage the parents to meet new parents and kids. Ask your kids if they made new friends at school, the more they share, the more they get connected with you.

5. Work on saying goodbye.

For mostly kids it’s hard to say goodbye to their parents. Make small separations timely to minify this challenge. Say goodbye with a small hug and tell them that you’ll be back in a while. This will help a lot at school. Mostly parents don’t leave their kids alone, that is a good practice actually. But you need to make them feel comfortable even if you are not present with them.

Consider the above suggestions and transfer their attachment from yourself to the new teacher. And it will be easy for you to say goodbye.

6. Early to bed early to rise would help a lot.

Kids need 9-11 hours of sleep to behave like kids. They have a lot of work to do, learning new things, making drawings, meeting new kids and making new friends. Good sleep improves reading and learning skills and keep your kid focussed and happy. So just keep an eye at the bedtime.

7. Warm up your kid’s brain.

You are not a teacher, but you can be one at home. We are not asking you to be a teacher in a professional strength, but you can help your kid to improve the learning curve by paying some attention to their activities. Introduce new activity books and games to warmup their minds. It works for pre-schoolers and for second grades students also.

8. Let kids select their own school stuff.

Let them choose their colours, notebooks, backpacks and activity books whenever you have an option. It makes the kids feel connected with their stuff.

9. Discuss about school before it starts for real.

Tell them what’s exciting about school, how a school playground looks like, the school library has hundreds of new books. Tell them that you will drop them to school and pick them after a nice day with new friends. Make them feel comfortable with your stories so that they can feel the ease like home when they get started with the school.

10. Say no to emotional goodbyes.

If your kid starts to cry at the school, you should not show any emotional change in your behaviour. Give them a small hug, say goodbye and tell them that you will be back after some time and take them home. If you have practised the above suggestions there are very less chances of a kid getting teary.