Five Ways to Prepare your Kids for the New School Year

Parents of school-aged kids know all too well that as summer winds down, there are so many things that need to be done to prepare for going back to school. More than preparing materially, let’s do our best to prepare our children emotionally and mentally for the school as well.

Here are some things you can do to help your kids be prepared for the new school year:

1. Read books together — including books about going back to school.
Your child may be fearful about the vast content material and new lessons that he will be facing when school starts. Help him gain confidence by reading lots of books together — encourage him to read out loud to you as well, if he can. This will help sharpen his reading skills, which he will need for reading directions on his books and completing homework assignments.

Make sure, too, that you include books about going back to school on your reading list. You may also want to include books about making new friends, especially for first-time school-goers. You can easily find these at your local bookstore.

Reading books like these with your child will most likely help ease his back-to-school jitters. Don’t forget to have a meaningful discussion about the book afterwards. You may even want to “act out” the situations in the book, to make things more fun and relevant to your kid!


2. Go on a school tour.
This is especially applicable if your child is just starting school, or has transferred to a new or “bigger” school. Ask your child’s school principal or teacher if you can visit her classroom so that she can be familiarized with her surroundings. Some schools offer free trial classes, so avail of those opportunities as well.

Don’t forget to include a tour of the school grounds, including the comfort room, school clinic, library and other important places, so that your child knows where to go for a particular need.

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3. Take your kids on a “school supply hunt.”
Make shopping for school supplies extra-exciting for the kids (especially the younger ones) by providing them with a list of “treasures” they need to help you “find.”

You may even go one step further by providing a “treasure map,” i.e. a simple hand-drawn map of the places you need to visit for your purchases. This will surely be a hit with the preschool-aged kids, though I’m sure children in the higher grades will enjoy it, too!


4. Ease into your school routine — BEFORE school starts.
One of the hardest things about going back to school is the change in your child’s daily routine, especially the time she wakes up and sleeps at night.

In an article on Fisher-Price.com, child psychologist Kenneth N. Condrell, Ph.D., encourages parents to set earlier bedtimes and recommit to routines at the end of summer. “According to pediatricians, kindergarteners need 11 hours of sleep, while first and second graders require ten and a half.”

Condrell says although these are general guidelines, parents should get an idea of how much sleep most children need to function well in school. After all, how can one be excited about school if one is sleep-deprived?

Get your kids used to waking up early, having breakfast and getting dressed for school at the proper time at least one or two weeks prior to the opening of classes. This will help both them and you stick to a regular routine later on.


5. Have a “back-to-school” celebration.
The day before school starts, have a simple back-to-school celebratory “bash” with your child. You can do it as simply or as lavishly as you wish — the main focus is making the occasion special by involving the whole family as much as possible.

You can go for a family picnic, visit the zoo or just stroll through your favorite shopping mall while munching on your kids’ favorite snacks. Make sure, though, that you set the tone for learning by talking about the school days ahead.

Try to do the aforementioned earlier in the day so that you and the kids have time to prepare for the next day. Ask them to help lay out their school uniforms (if they will be using such), assemble their school supplies in their school bags, and help in their baon preparation by giving you ideas on what they want to bring to school.

Making going back to school a reason to celebrate and the activity of getting things ready will help get children in the mood for what is to come.

Of course, these aren’t the only ways parents can help prepare their kids for going back to school. There are so many other things we can do make the new school year exciting and fun for our children. We’d love to get your tips, too! Please feel free to leave a comment below or on our Facebook page.

Photo by clogozm from flickr creative commons