Aug 30, 2007

Making the First Day of School Easier

The American Academy of Pediatrics offers these tips for making the first day of school easier for your child:
  • Remind your child that she is not the only student who is a bit uneasy about the first day of school. Teachers know that students are anxious and will make an extra effort to make sure everyone feels as comfortable as possible.
  • Point out the positive aspects of starting school: It will be fun. She'll see old friends and meet new ones. Refresh her memory about previous years, when she may have returned home after the first day with high spirits because she had a good time.
  • Find another child in the neighborhood with whom your youngster can walk to school or ride with on the bus.
  • If you feel it is appropriate, drive your child (or walk with her) to school and pick her up on the first day.
Kindergarten is still three years off for us, but I have a few friends at work whose children will be starting school in just a week or two. I don't know who's going to have the harder time: the mommies or the kids! One of my friends did say that the kindergarten teachers do not allow parents in the classroom for the first few weeks, to give the children a chance to adjust to being in school.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I don't know who's going to have the harder time: the mommies or the kids! "

No question there. It's 50x worse on the parents then it is the kids. Once the initial shock wears off, the kids will most likely have a blast after getting into it 5 or 10 minutes in. The parents on the other hand will be biting their nails and hands off, stressing all day about it. And I'm only talking about preschool! I can't imagine what it's gonna be like when our kids are old enough for kindergarten.

ChiefFamilyOfficer said...

Hey, at least with preschool you can often call the school to see if your child stopped crying, etc. And at Alex's daycare (which also has a preschool), the parents often exchange emails with reports on what the kids were up to - it's just extra reassurance that everyone's kids are doing fine. I'm pretty sure that's not the case with kindergarten!