How to prepare your children for when they go back to school

Can you believe that we are getting ready to go back to school and nursery? Seems like just yesterday everything was shut and closed for our safety due to a worldwide pandemic – Covid-19. For parents it has been a very stressful period in your lives because your “normal” has been totally flipped upside down. You have had to balance looking after your little ones, entertaining them and home-schooling them all while working from home. This has been a huge jump straight into the unknown, but we believe that there is a positive to every negative and these uncertain times have given us much more time to spend with our families, which should be looked at as a blessing.

As children, going back to school after spending so much time with their parents and families can be an extremely stressful transition. They may be anxious, nervous and even scared so, we have five small suggestions and tips on how to make your children less anxious and more excited about returning to school.

1. Emphasise how exciting it will be to see their school friends and teachers again: they will be able to play in the playground during their lunch break which has climbing frames and outdoor equipment that most people don’t have at home – swings, monkey bars, climbing walls etc. those provide endless fun which they get to do with their friends.

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Make sure you talk about school a fair amount: help build up the excitement by talking about fun or funny memories you had from your school days. Stick to speaking about school positively to make your little ones feel more at ease about going back.

3. Talk about all the new topics they will be learning during their new school year: school is full of wonderful and exciting topics as well as an abundance of knowledge and subjects to learn new and exciting things from. Maybe tell them some fun facts about different subjects that they can tell their teachers and friends when they’re back at school.

4. Make a countdown worm to get them to build up excitement for school: kids LOVE a countdown worm/chart/chain etc. used for any exciting activity, holiday or event that is coming up so use it to your benefit to help increase their enthusiasm for school.

5. Purchase some new school supplies: of course, do this within reason but every child loves a new school backpack, pens, pencils, pencil case etc. and it will get them excited to use them which helps with building up the excitement.

We really hope that we have helped you help your little ones build up their excitement for school and that you have found ways within this post to help them feel more at ease and less anxious about this new transition.

“Develop a passion for learning, if you do, you will never cease to grow”.