It’s important for children to learn how to manage their time and organize their assignments on their own, and the start of a new school year is an excellent opportunity to work on these new skills.
In Part 2 of our Start The School Year Strong series, I’m sharing a few quick tips to help your family start a back-to-school ritual and create a more personalized schedule to help your child accomplish more during the new school year.
- Instill Responsibility
- This is an endlessly useful skill that your child will use through out their life. They’ll thank you later!
- Time management is a part of this! It will help them to be seen as a reliable person who gets things done when asked.
- Create a Routine
- Instituting an earlier bedtime can help them get up earlier for school. Starting to put together their belongings the night before can make mornings go smoothly every day!
- An alarm clock can help foster independance and feelings of self sufficiency.
- Calm is key!
- Going to bed without difficult emotions and waking up at ease can help every day start on the right foot.
- Including them in the back-to-school shopping trip helps them to be a part of the process and know what to look for in their daily routine. Plus, having them choose the items themselves gives your child a sense of ownership over the products…which means a higher likelyhood of them taking good care of them and bringing them back home with them each day.
- Talk to them!
- Ask them about their hopes and expectations for the year.
- Discuss what they think could go better at school this year than it did last year.
- Make sure they know that they can always talk to you about their worries and dreams. This gives them a healthy place to vent (and it lets you in on where their mind is!)
- Be careful not to pass any judgement on what they share with you. Give advice only when asked!
Remember, It’s never too late to start any of these tips! I hope you found these suggestions helpful. Can’t wait to hear about this school year!
