Back-to-School Preparations

In a few days, most schools in the Philippines will be starting a new school year. By now, parents typically have enrolled their children in their preferred schools, and have gone out to do at least some shopping for some school supplies and personal use items.

Whereas all these routines are good rituals to follow in preparing ourselves and our children for the upcoming change of routine (i.e., from the relatively less structure of the vacation period to the more rigorous demands of school time), what other things do you do to prepare yourselves and your children psychologically? My post this week will focus on some tips you might find useful.

One thing that might help in preparing both ourselves and our children is to review the school routine with them before school actually starts. For instance, we can simply start telling stories of how the past school year was like and how the coming school year might be the same or different. This is particularly good for children who have attended school before. Getting your children to talk about their thoughts and feelings about the coming school year is a good way to find out what their experience is like. In a very casual environment, just listen to them; that’s the most important part. Get as much information from them as you can. These are already potential topics for future conversations and explorations, particularly when the school actually starts.

Another thing that we can do is to start rehearsing the usual daily routine of school time. This can take the form or simply sleeping and waking up as if school had already begun. We might even want to give our child an alarm clock to let them take responsibility for their own sleeping and waking time. Having the children prepare what clothes they are going to wear the following day is also a good practice.

Taking things a step further, we might also want to start picking up the homework routine even before school starts. We can review past lessons or do the first few lessons on their textbooks. Another way of just getting the children to condition themselves with studying again is to do some kind of reading; any story or topic will do. Filling up some puzzles or playing some age appropriate educational computer or board games will also do. The idea is for them to start going back to doing the usual kind of thinking they have to do when they are in school, and to have that kind of routine of doing some work on a daily basis.

Finally, I do need to say that all the above needs to be done in as light hearted and fun way as possible. Remember that children learn faster and retain more information when they are sufficiently relaxed while somewhat curiously excited. Let us do what we can to keep such an environment going, both at the start of the school year and as we journey through the rest of the year.