6 Back to School Tips For An Easy Transition.

Summer is almost over (sigh) and that means school is fast approaching! This week I am going to share with you a few of my favourite tips to get you and your family ready for the transition. The better you can prep your family, the easier those first few weeks back will be. I’ve already started working through most of the strategies with my family. Your turn!

BACK TO SCHOOL TIP #1: Create a solid morning routine!

I am NOT an early to rise person and neither is my family but the last thing I want is for my kids to be late to school. By creating a well-planned morning routine you can get out of the house on time with little to no bumps along the way (exciting right?!). Start practicing your back-to-school morning routine NOW!

I always pack backpacks the night before and leave them at the front door with the zipper wide open so all I have to do is plop the lunch box in. Sounds so insignificant but was a game changer when I started doing it. #backtoschool

BACK TO SCHOOL TIP #2: Fake it until you make it!

If you’re feeling stressed or anxious about school starting than your child is likely going to pick up on this and follow suit. Consider how your own behaviour is affecting your child’s. Stay calm and positive in front of your child-even if you don’t feel that way inside. Let your child decide on their own if they’re going to have anxious feelings or not. 

P.s. feeling anxious about back to school is totally normal- especially for those who are sending their first child off to kindergarten! I’m 100% anticipating those back to school jitters myself.

BACK TO SCHOOL TIP #3: Involve your kids during back to school shopping

Back to school sales are on!! Those sales hit a sweet spot, but that cart can’t push itself so make sure to involve your kids in your back to school shopping! This gives you an opportunity to talk to them about school while doing something that makes them excited for what lies ahead

BACK TO SCHOOL TIP #4: Familiarize your child with their school 

Our kids thrive off of predictability. There’s no better way to make them less anxious for school than by visiting it! Play in the school playground and start walking or driving the route to school on your daily outings. Take pictures of your child’s school so you guys can look at them together. This is a great conversation starter!

BACK TO SCHOOL TIP #5: Get back into a good bedtime routine

Sleep is one of the most important players in a successful transition. Proper sleep hygiene is extremely important for growth and development. A well rested child will be more resilient through change. Start getting back into a good bedtime routine NOW! If you stretched bedtime over the summer, start to slowly shift it back in 15 minute increments until you are back to your regular. Starting Monday this will definitely be going down in the Stern house!

BACK TO SCHOOL TIP #6: Connect your child with their friends 

A familiar face will make a huge difference when your kid goes back to school. Try to schedule in a play date before school starts. I’ll be setting up a few playdates at our school playground so my daughter can reconnect with her classmates who she hasn’t seen in two months. Feeling connected to others plays a huge part in reducing anxious feelings, especially with transitions. 

You’ve got this!

-Cori

p.s. If you’re feeling stressed about the transition back to school? Worried your kid will be emotional and attached to your hip until you have to pry their hands off? If you find transitions challenging, let me give you solutions to make this one a little more seamless.  Book in a FREE 30-minute call so I can understand where you’re at. From one mama to another- I’m here for you! 

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The Kindergarten --> Grade 1 Transition

In about 5 weeks time, thousands of kids around the city are going to be making the transition from Kindergarten to Grade 1. WHOA! This is a BIG deal! The days of roaming the classroom like a free bird are over. Up there with graduating from High School, this is one of the biggest jumps in a child's academic career. Things are about to get more formal, more structured, and a lot more demanding. For some learners, this transition will be seamless. For others, it might cause a lot of fluttery butterflies in the tummy. Each learner will handle the transition on their own terms. For those extra-special learners, this transition might be extremely challenging because of all the change that is going to take place. We all know what the first-day-of-school jitters feels like.  Been there! Done that! Now magnify that x10 for a child who doesn't fare well with the unknown and needs the predictability to maintain a state of calmness.

What does one do to avoid total transition catastrophe?? How do you settle those butterflies in the tummy for all those extra special learners?? There are various factors to consider when preparing for this transition. As you gear up for the first few weeks of school consider the following 5 factors when you are in prep mode. These factors are not exclusive to the SK--> Grade 1 Transition. They can be considered by any teacher who has students who struggle with transitions.

Best of luck preparing for a seemless transition!

- Cori 

New Environment

Welcome to your Grade 1 classroom! For the most part the Grade 1 classroom is in a different room than Kindergarten was, perhaps a different hallways and even more so a different level/floor of the school. Things can look different in Grade 1. The room is set up differently, the cubbies are in different places, and there's no washroom in the classroom anymore. Boo! If you know you have an extra special learner in your classroom, consider taking pictures of the classroom for the student so the student has access to them at home. Providing a visual of the classroom will help reduce anxiety around entering the new learning environment because you will be exposing them to the classroom before they even step in it. increasing the predictability is the name of the game!

New Routines

Sample visual schedule- good for new routines and transitions

New classroom! New teacher! New routines! This includes but is not limited to; an entrance routine in the morning, an exit routine for recess and home-time, a lunch-time routine, a snack-time routine and a washroom routine (to name a few). These are all things that are taught in the first few weeks of school. This can be information overload for some learners, which can lead to some negative behaviours. Consider creating visual schedules that breaks down each routine into it's component steps. This will give the student the opportunity to learn the routines step-by-step and have something to refer to if they get stuck or confused along the way. Visual schedules are great for keeping students on track when doing a multistep task.

New Transitions

Sample visual timer

With a new classroom comes a new set of rules, guidelines and transitions. Going to back to unpredictable situations- transitions can cause those butterflies to flutter because sometimes there is an unknown at the end of the transition. This can include transitions from recess back to class, activity to activity, classroom to gymnasium, and the list goes on. Students are transitioning all day, every day between different activities, rooms, and people. To help make the daily transitions concrete for your learners, use countdowns so they know when the transitions are coming and use visual schedules so they know what they are transitioning to. Some students will benefit from a visual timer so they exactly how much time they have left with a certain activity.

Change in Structure

The learning environment is about to get a lot more structured and formal. Kindergarten supports a very play based learning environment. Kids are familiar with bins of toys to explore, an open space on the carpet used as a canvas for exploration, and learning centres set up for them to roam to and from. Grade 1 comes along and we are all of sudden sitting at desks for extended periods of time, doing a lot more paper and pencil work, and a lot less moving around the classroom. For some learners this change might feel like going from 0-10 in 30 seconds (especially when coming back to school from summer vacation). This can be a recipe for disaster. When in prep mode, you should be asking yourself how you can incorporate some K-structure into your class at the beginning of the year and slowly up the ante as time goes on. Can you incorporate a fun and cozy book nook for free reading time? Still use activity centres for certain subjects? Allow room for exploration with learning manipulatives?

Developmental Trajectory

At this point we know all kids grow and learn at their own pace. We also know that typically developing kids usually follow a similar trajectory with their growth and development. The same is not true for kids with exceptionalities. Whether they are gifted, have a learning disability, or a developmental disability, they will all present differently. This means you have to play detective from to the get go and figure out where each of your students are in their development. Once you have this under your belt-you will be able to better develop your curriculum and programs to ensure success! A lot of natural maturation takes place over the summer, so just because you know a student from the previous year, doesn't mean they are going to be starting off where they left off. Lastly, there are always those kids that go through physical growth spurts over the summer- be sure to take into consideration that outer and inner development might not happen simultaneously. Kids might come into class the first week of school looking a lot older, however still be very early in their emotional and cognitive development.