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By Heather Aho
6 Tips for Back-to-School
Ok, so here we are, mid-summer and the last thing your child probably wants to hear about are the Back-to-School sales and homework right around the corner. Here are some tips from an educator to help prepare your child (and you) for the fall!
2. Try to keep routines and schedules. During the school year, children are subjected to lots of structure and routines, whether it is sports practice, dance class, tutoring sessions etc. Sometimes ending the summer can be very challenging when you have been vacationing or just hanging out with no schedules. It is very important to give children structure, and doing this at home will help prepare them for what they are about to endeavor when the walk into that classroom in August. Maybe there will be a set schedule for chores around the house or a certain time of day they’ll sit down and read for about 20 minutes. Bedtime is another big one! Summer is a great time to stay up late and watch lots of television; however, it may be a big help to start getting your child to bed a little bit earlier as the summer draws to an end to prevent the struggles of getting them up for school!
3. Teaching organizational skills. Organized children are a blessing to a classroom teacher! A lot of adults even have a difficult time keeping organized. Having your child work on keeping their toys, books, games, etc. organized could be a great skill to work on over the summer. As a kid I loved for my dad to give me records to put in alphabetical order or help my mom organize her Tupperware cabinet by size, shape, and color (ok, so this may be a little much, but I always wanted to be a teacher!) Start with something simple like organizing clothing drawers and maybe move on to something bigger like DVD’s or CD’s and see if you can start a trend, if not, at least they’ll get the basic idea that organization can make things easier to find when they are needed.
4. Allowances. Giving your child an allowance can be a great tool for learning life skills. Once school starts back up, your child will want the latest fashions in clothing and shoes, they’ll want money for lunches, book fairs, field trips etc. By giving them some kind of allowance over the summer, you can teach them the value of a dollar, which will also touch on some much important money concepts they will most likely be exposed to in math class no matter what age they are! I am not telling you to make your child buy their school supplies and clothes, but if they save some of their own money and have to spend it on the “extra” things they want, it may make them a little more conscious of spending money. Who knows, maybe they’ll want to spend it all at Barnes and Noble, and that could be a good thing!
5. Rewards and Consequences at home. Having rewards and consequences at home can really aid in classroom behaviors when children head back to school. If your child has a carefree summer of doing whatever they want and they never suffer a consequence or are never rewarded for good behavior, it can make a teacher’s life very difficult in the classroom. Teaching children that good behaviors will be rewarded, whether it is with positive praise or some tangible treat can encourage those good behaviors to spill over into the classroom. On the other side, having no consequences for improper behavior or actions can result in conflicts between your child and their new teacher. I have had amazing support with parents in the past that have made sure that negative or positive behaviors were dealt with at home too. If a child is praised in school and not at home, they may feel as if it doesn’t matter whether or not they are making good choices, same goes for if a parent ignores a negative behavior that occurred in school, that is the same as condoning it!
6. Limiting video game/computer time. Lots of children bust out of those school doors in June, throw their backpacks on their living room couch and plop themselves on a beanbag chair in front of a computer or game system. Children, a lot of times, do not understand the concept of time and can spend hours upon hours in front of that game. As a parent, trying to limit their game time to small intervals throughout the day, or one set time in the day, will really benefit your child when school starts back up and that game time turns to homework time again! There are some great educational websites that can be explored as well, and encouraging those could maybe at least make that game time somewhat beneficial for your child. Most schools’ websites feature links to popular educational websites and most likely, your child has used them throughout the school year and is very aware that they exist!
To sum it all up, summer is a time for fun, relaxation, spending time with family and friends and a much-needed break from school. However, you can always incorporate some structure to your summer fun, in order to maintain what has been learned throughout the last school year, you child (and their teacher) will love and thank you!
