Exciting transitions: Heading back to school

The end of summer brings both anxiety and excitement for children. A new school year provides many expectations: new teachers, new classes, new classmates, and new challenges.

To help your child navigate this fast-flowing stream of potential chaos, it’s important to help students gather all of the tools they need to prepare for the year ahead and be organized for class assignments. Parents can suggest methods to help keep their children organized, like calendars, to-do lists, and task notebooks. If your child is already using digital tools, show him or her how to use digital organizer apps.

Here at Trinity Prep, our one-to-one program encourages the use of technology for education by requiring all eighth to 12th graders to bring a laptop to school. This transition to using a digital device can be overwhelming, but offers opportunities for efficiency and access to online resources. We work to build students’ skills in this area before they start eighth grade by using computers as class resources. All students receive an Evernote account to assist students with online note taking and organization.

It’s important to hold your children accountable for meeting deadlines and taking care of their own belongings, while also building children’s confidence in their own ability to manage their assignments. Check your children’s homework, but resist the tendency to correct mistakes, thus placing the responsibility on your children to complete the assignment and strengthening their own problem-solving skills.

Students are involved in so many activities, and they look to their parents for guidance on finding that elusive balance between school, rest and fun. With extensive commitments, students may overextend themselves, which can increase anxiety. As a parent, make sure you aren’t adding to your child’s anxiety. Rather than asking your children what grade they received on an exam or quiz, ask them what they learned and how they can do better next time.

The research is clear: students are not getting enough sleep. This can have devastating effects on a child’s health and performance in school. It is up to parents to set guidelines at the start of the school year about a student’s schedule, while allowing sufficient time to sleep and enough unscheduled time to have fun. Unscheduled time plays a strong role in a child’s development, just as sleeping and studying do.

To help your children sleep adequately, make sure they do not have digital distractions at bedtime. Keep the computer or laptop in a central location in the home, outside of the bedroom. Similarly, require your child to charge other gadgets, like mobile phones or iPads, throughout the night in a family room or kitchen. Avoid television an hour before bedtime, as the artificial light can disturb natural sleep rhythms.

When parents and schools work together, children can have a productive and enjoyable educational experience. The anxieties from the start of the school year will quickly dissipate.