So, the next time you mention the word again, you are faced with a ‘yeah! yeah! I know…don’t rub it in’ expression. Not that he wouldn’t enjoy school, once he settles back into the routine (you have no doubt about that), but dealing with a grumpy fellow just when you need to begin reorganizing his habits and timings to fit school routne can be quite nerve- wracking. These couple of days on either side of the D-day are vital and could determine how your child braces up for the whole session ahead. With a little planning and organization from your side, he could be well prepared and even look forward to school or else approach going to school with reluctance, and even, resentment. Here are some pointers to help you and your child be in the former bracket.
Resetting school schedule
The first thing is getting your child’s routine in order. All through the holidays, he would have had his way—when to wake up, when to eat, what to eat, when to bathe, when to sleep et cetera. Even the usual play/study/activity hour timings would have gone into a tizzy. All these timings have to be reorganized into a system and will take a week, so get going if you haven’t started already.
Waking up early routine - There is nothing more detrimental to a child’s enthusiasm to going to school than being forced to wake up early in the morning. Being forced to get up and get ready while he is still sleepy is sure to make him cranky and resent going to school. Plus, the whole episode is definitely going to elevate your blood pressure a bit as well. On the other hand, if your child wakes up well in time to get comfortably out of sleep before he starts getting ready, not only would it make the task of getting him ready easier but would also ensure that he goes to school in good spirits.
One way is waking him up with a ‘get up because you need to get used to waking up early for school’ lecture. Usually, this approach makes a child dread going back to school. Also, once he is up (point proven, mission accomplished), say as early as 6 am, which is the usual time for most school kids to wake up, he’d probably have nothing to do, unless you are vigilant and would fall right back into his bed till eight in the morning.
An alternative way is using an interesting early morning activity as an excuse to get him out of bed. There are many activities to choose from - early morning nature walks with dad, early morning swimming or tennis classes, bird watching, gardening, learning to read the morning newspaper something on those lines. Or, you could pass on some of the household chores to him like walking the family dog, helping you water the plants or even opening the door to the milkman!
Mid-day naps and getting to bed early – Getting your child to wake up early is only half the battle won. You need to get him to take an afternoon nap, if he has been doing so during regular school days, and get to bed early at night as well to establish a complete sleeping and waking up cycle. Putting kids to bed is somehow tougher than getting them to wake up. You could try creating a ‘sleep mode’ ambience half an hour before the time you’d like them to be in bed. That is, being over and done with dinner, switching off all modes of entertainment, switching off lights in the lobby, kitchen and sitting areas, having them (and yourself as well) in the night pajamas and finally tucking them in their bed. You would face a lot of resistance, especially since the holidays are not yet officially over, but you’d have to stick to your ground. All would be well in a couple of days.
Re-scheduling eating patterns — Your child’s eating habits are sure to have gone out of gear as well during the holidays. Having a late and leisurely breakfast, munching at odd hours and eating junk food are all part and parcel of holiday enjoyment. But, with school schedule, all that need to change. Most of us don’t really pay any attention to eating habits and think that those would get established on their own. But the fact remains that good eating habits have to be inculcated and form a very important part of the overall growth and development of a child. If you don’t inculcate the right habits, you would probably have a kid who refuses to have anything before going to school and be sneaking on his packed lunch in between classes.
Around the time you begin waking your child early, start re-establishing his eating routine as well. Give him a healthy snack, a glass of milk with a banana or an egg sandwich or whatever that he would normally be eating before catching his bus to school, a little after he wakes up. Similarly, serve breakfast at the time he would be having his snack break in school, lunch at the time when he would be getting back from school, a glass of milk and a light snack in the evening and an early dinner, to get him in bed well in time. Also, it would be a good idea to start monitoring the amount of junk food he’s allowed to consume as some junk foods like chocolates, ice creams, and colas consumed later in the evening can interfere with sleep timings.
Re-establishing other schedules-Along with establishing the waking up and eating timings, go ahead and set the rest of the usual routine as well. Encourage your child to have his bath and brush his teeth around the same time he would be needing to do so on regular school days. You could also begin with scheduling the rest of the day like any other school day with dedicated play, study and activity hours so that once he begins school, he’d have a timetable to follow.
Inculcate a positive attitude towards school
Establishing the school routine is the physical part of getting prepared for school. You need to create a positive outlook towards school to further beat the blues. Here are some tips to do that:
Talk about the positive things—There must be quite a few things about school that your child likes—meeting his friends, being a member of the school basketball team or drama society et cetera. Talk about the friends he’d be meeting after such a long time, a new move that he might have mastered over the holidays that he could share with his team mates, a new play he has read or songs he might have learnt to play on the guitar and so on. You could even arrange a little get-together with some of his classmates to get him looking forward to fun times with buddies in school.
The power of new - New belongings will lift his spirit, then why not get some new school related stuff for your kids to get them excited about school? While younger children would be happy with new stationary items like colour pencils, pens, sketch books or even a new water bottle or a school bag, older children would need more ‘image’ oriented new stuff. Try allowing them to get a new haircut just before the school reopens, they’d be so excited with showing off this new look that they’d be literally running to school! Other things like new (read trendy) shoes, calculators, watches, tennis racquets et cetera can work the same magic.
Set some goals — Talking about, though very subtly, what your child may look forward to in school in this particular session would help clear a bit of his apprehension.Don’t just talk about academics but sports and other activities as well. Setting little goals or targets for the session also helps motivate a child and have him thinking positively about school, rather than approach school with a vague sense of purpose.
Take it slow and steady—Don’t go into a ‘getting back to school’ overdrive.
Instead, make the transition as subtle as possible. One way to do so is continue with some fun activity even when the school reopens so that your child doesn’t associate school with the end of all fun. You could maybe plan a movie on the weekend of a school week or take him for special outing.
Be creative—Finally, there are a whole lot of other ways to making your child look forward to school from covering school books with new and colourful wrapping sheets, making personalized book markers or tags, personalized lunch or pencil boxes, friendship bands for friends, putting a collection of photographs of what your child did over the holidays et cetera. You could have him make these himself to add to the fun.
Address issues that may cause anxiety
Sometimes, its not just holiday blues that could have your child being reluctant to go to school. With younger children, its usually issues like separation anxiety, apprehensions and uncertainties about the new environment and people they’d be encountering. Older children have other issues that could be bothering them like unfinished holiday homework or projects, fear of encountering a bully, not being academically with the class or fearing exams that might be beginning soon after the school reopens. Once you know the cause, talk about it with your child and do whatever you can to ease the anxiety.
Gear up yourself
Last but not the least , actually, this should be the first thing you need to be doing-getting up for school routine yourself and putting your own schedule in order, least you should find yourself scampering at the last moment.n
