How to Help Your Child Prepare for the First Day of School

Is it that time again already? Follow these simple steps to help your child face those first-day fears.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Book Bags
• Pencils
• Calendars
• Colored Ink Pens
• Notebooks
• Pencil Cases
• Pencil Sharpeners
• Pencils
• Lunch Boxes
• Pencils
• Notebooks

1. Begin preparing your child a few weeks before the big day (sooner, if this is his or her first school experience or a new school). If your household has relaxed bedtime and morning routines over the summer months, start to wake your child a little earlier each morning, and move bedtime up 15 minutes every few nights to re-establish "school hours."

2. Plan a "back-to-school" shopping day with each child individually, and make it a special event. Of course, you'll set (and try to stick to) a general budget, but leave some room for one or two small extravagances (reuse last year's backpack, but buy this year's hottest cartoon-character notebook).

3. Before the big clothes-shopping trip, spend some time with each child sorting through last year's things and decide together what goes into which pile (keeper, hand-me-down or donate). Insist that your child try on every keeper.

4. For a new year in a new school, plan a visit there a week or so before the first day. Walk through the building locating the classrooms, bathrooms and lunchroom.

5. If your child will be riding the bus, find out the route he or she will take and drive it together a few times there and back. If he or she is a walker, plan the route and walk it together both ways.

6. Help your child deal with first-day jitters by focusing on some special advantage of, for example, being a fourth-grader. Perhaps your child is now old enough for his or her own house key, an increase in allowance or some other new privilege.

7. Celebrate the big day. Go out for dinner or plan a special meal the night before, or present your child with a small gift.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't wait too long to schedule that back-to-school shopping trip. By mid-August, local sources may be sold out of hot items. Do you want to deal with that kind of disappointment?
• Review important safety rules with your child such as using established walking routes to and from school, what to do if approached by a stranger, what to do if he or she misses the bus or loses the house key.

on 11/22/2005 If your child is in middle or Jr. high school, make sure that you make copies of his or her schedule. That way he can keep the original with him, and if he loses it he won't be stuck in a long line in the office waiting for another copy.

on 11/22/2005 A friend of mine invites the entire block for a send-off party with the children at the bus stop (complete with muffins, etc.). Then the moms all go back to her house to "celebrate" with a deluxe breakfast, complete with champagne! It's WONDERFUL!

on 11/22/2005 My daughters begin the "re-entry" process August first. We start to stagger bedtimes and reintroduce school routines so that the mad scramble at the end of the month is minimized as much as possible. It makes for a smooth transition for all. :)

on 11/22/2005 Plan a picnic at the bus stop. Send invitations to children who wait at your stop, and meet there for lunch a day or two before school starts. Ask each child to bring a sack lunch. It's a great way for parents and kids to get back in touch after vacation.