Separating from parents and entering unfamiliar territory for the first time is a cause of anxiety and fear for small children. Here are a few tips to make the transition from home to school an easier one for both the parent and child.
1. Talk to your child as often as you can before school starts. Have positive conversations on how fun the school and playing with other children should be.
2. Introduce classroom activities, like painting with crayons or scribbling with paper, at home.
3. Promote sharing. This is especially important if the child has no brothers or sisters and has never been to a nursery, so they might find it difficult to realise that the toys there are not his or her own and that everyone has to play with the same toys.
4. Walk or drive to the school’s premises to accustom the child to the ‘new’ place where he or she would be spending a few hours each day with other children of their age.
5. Get the child accustomed to his backpack and show them how to take things out of it and place them back in some order.
6. The most common challenge is for children to say goodbye to their parents or trouble separating. But it is just as hard for parents as it is for the young ones. So first prepare yourself. Keep goodbyes as short as possible and also be aware of your non-verbal cues: some children can pick them up and the more worried a parent may look, the more fearful a child will be.
7. You can always put a little reminder of home in the child’s backpack to ease his separation anxiety. Anything from a toy to a book can provide a sense of security to children in an unfamiliar setting.
8. Children with socio-emotional skills, poor self-esteem or low self-confidence may find the transition more hard. Inform the teacher if you know your child has such issues, so perhaps he or she would make that extra effort to help integrate the child with the other schoolmates.
9. Tell the teacher about other needs the child might have, besides health-related ones even though the child would have had a medical examination before being accepted into school.
10. Do not be discouraged if you find your child crying when you pick him up from school. It does not mean he is not doing well but it would be an emotional outburst, showing how he really missed you. You can reassure him by saying that you missed him too and reinforce the idea that you came back like you said you would.
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