4 Tips For Parents to Get Back Into the School Rhythm

As much as parents say they are prepared for their children to start a new academic session, they are never fully prepared.

From setting up morning routines to going to bed early, you have to get back in the routines to ensure your children are as prepared as possible. This can sometimes take a toll on you, and one catastrophe might lead to another. Next thing you know, you have a full-on breakdown, that you didn’t prepare for. To make sure you are able to get back into the rhythm without much ado, and maybe even kick ass (so much you are envied by other parents in the PTA) here are some tips to consider:

Network
Connect with other parents and try to stay in contact with them. This way, you are up to date with all the new information from the school to the parents. A casual hello and one or two play dates won’t hurt anybody. If there’s any inside gist or info you may have missed, you will be kept in the loop. You don’t want your child to start a new session and be the only one not following the color scheme for the first two weeks or signing up for the wrong clubs. Establishing these relationships can help you all through the school season for situations where you might need a tutor, carpool ideas or just face that may have the same problems you are having. For new mums, some schools have PTA executives you can connect with, if you have no clue what’s happening in the school.

Keep a firm hand on your routine
When school is out for the holidays especially the summer break, the sleep patterns and the daily patterns of the children tend to change because there’s no urge to wake up quite early to beat Lagos traffic. Chances are that the children forgot the routine, and find it hard to get back to them. It can even be trying for you as a parent as well.
To make sure your children don’t slack or forget themselves, keep a firm hand on the wake up time and bed time, that will be needed for them to get to school at the required time.

Realign their routine
Your child has been on a break for a while so trust and believe school and books are the least thing on their mind. To make sure they don’t look like a deer in the headlights on their first or second week back, start giving them some exercises before school resumes. Some suggested exercises are vocabulary tests, where they learn ten new words a day and give you the meaning to these new words and the spellings. You can also add math tests that line up with the curriculum of their grade.
Even with their diet, you can start slowly to create a more structured meal plan as the holiday season is drawing to a close . By the time school has begins, they are already used to it and they aren’t giving you evil eyes every time you serve them food.

Stock up
It is very important to ensure you have the correct list from your child’s school, so you know what they need for the academic session. Perhaps you purchased supply for the first week or the first term but a week into resumption it’s already looking like they are running out. No need to fret, go to the school office and pay for supply from the school, and if that is not possible, order online. Be sure to stock up for the entire academic year so that you do not have to go to the store every week. This could also apply to snacks; buy the biscuits and juice for break time in bulk.

Can you think of other helpful tips for parent this back-to-school season?

Photo Credit: Dreamstime