The Gist:

• Yay! They’re going back to school!

• Oh geez! They’re going back to school!

Read more…

This year, back to school time has been filled with more than just shopping for supplies, picking up new clothes, squeezing in another short weekend trip, and making sure your child knows how to get to class and home from school.

This year we’ve had the added pressure of not knowing whether we’ll be able to send our kids to school and also how safe they will be if they do go back.

Some of you need to prepare for that in-person, live classroom learning (and you’re probably doing a happy dance in between panic attacks). And even though everything is different in the world, we can still support children in developing resilience and confidence.

A big way to support your Little during back-to-school is to keep open communication. For those of you saying “yeah right”, here’s how you can get (a little) more information out of your kiddo when they’ve been at school all day.

First, watch their behavior. How your child ACTS will tell you way more than any words they might use. When you ask them “how was your day?” (total conversation killer, btw) and they say “good”, but they’re all slumped down and acting like a jerk, you’ll know that something didn’t go right. Go easy on them. 

Share information about your day first. Model what it looks like to share information. Talk about how you FELT as you went through your day. I had a meeting today that was really boring. I just wanted to leave! 

Stay in listening mode instead of going into “problem-solving mode”. Oftentimes, when we do get a scrap of information, we want to drill down and turn it into a Big Fat Lesson. We don’t have to do that. Simply hearing our child out can do wonders even if we don’t end up saying or doing anything.

Get your child emotionally involved with their teacher and peers. We learn way more from people and environments that we like than from people we don’t. If you have the luxury, set up in-person playdates with new classmates. Playdates can be powerful catalysts for school-based relationships.

Having your child at school for 6+ hours a day can make it tough to influence their attitudes around learning. The best things you can do to support them is model a positive outlook around learning and communication. 

Talk to the teacher earlier rather than later if your child is having a hard time at school. Working to get all the adults on the same page can be a game changer for your child, and the less time they have to wait for that moment, the better. 

All my best-

Gabriele