How To Help Your Favorite Radcliffe Superstar Deal With Their Big Feelings About Day 1
The first day of school can be scary! A glorious, super fun, and marvelous adventure, but holy guacamole, can it be scary. For some of the younger minds among us, it can be especially daunting. After years of unprecedented amounts of time at home with family, some students may feel nervous (or even have minor separation anxiety).
Here are some tips to help alleviate the concerns of some of our nervous Radcliffe Creek superstars!
Talk About How Exciting The First Day of School Can Be!
Children are excellent at discerning the feelings of those around them, especially their parent’s feelings.
It’s important you take the time to daily express your excitement for them and the new adventures they will be having at school!
Be as specific as possible and do this a few weeks leading up to the first day of school.
Some examples include talking about their new color pencils, crayons, certain children who will be in their classroom (we can provide a list of their classmates), going back-to-school shopping, and the different topics they will be learning.
Walk or Drive Them To Or From School
If you have the availability to walk or drive your child to or from school, do it!
This will allow you additional time to speak with them and answer any questions that may be going through their minds.
This is also precious time to discuss with them the events of the day, things they learned, friends they made, and other activities that occurred during the day. Lastly, it enables you to help reinforce their progress in conquering a fear, while offering reassurance (especially if the first day is in fact a little rough).
Use Words of Affirmation
Children desperately want to be loved and feel secure in this love. Your friend who’s obsessed with astrology has probably talked about love languages. Words of affirmation aren’t for all adults. However, they work particularly well with children to help reassure, reinforce, and recognize/validate their feelings.
Express words of affirmation to them throughout this new experience. Take the time to recognize that this may be difficult for your child and express how proud you are of them for having the courage to continue forward.
Do not verbalize these words just once, but often! As Mr. Dawson likes to say, “sometimes it’s in one ear and out the other with these kids, man.”
Surprises And Reminders During School
We all love surprises, and some of the best ways to secretly and quietly give a surprise to your child can be in their lunchbox or backpack.
Write a note expressing your love for your child and slip it in their lunchbox. This small act of kindness and reassurance may be just the thing they need on the first day of school. A reminder of how much you love them, or how special they are, or that you’re thinking about them, may give them the confidence boost to go say hi to a new friend.
Be There For Them When They Come Home From School
Be available to your children when they come home from school. With a school like Radcliffe Creek, it can be tricky for all of our parents to be able to drive their child on the first day. But most of us can arrange our schedule to try and be there when they get off the bus. This will speak volumes to your Radcliffe Superstar!
It’s so important to be available and willing to listen to how their day went. Be ready to provide kind words of counsel and advice, but more importantly, be willing to do a lot of listening.
Express Pride In Them And All That They're Doing
Express how proud you are of your child, not just on the first day of school, but every day after.
There are so many voices shouting at your children on what’s cool, what’s not, how to act, look, think, and these voices can be incredibly overwhelming. Your children look up to you. They admire and respect your ideas and principles. Knowing that you’re proud of them will help them live a life filled with like-minded values and principles. You’re amazing! They’re a mini-you! Help them be amazing too.