Supporting a Successful Return to School: Practical Tips for Children, Youth, and Families

After a couple of months of summer break, it is time to start considering and preparing for back to school, in particular school routines. Oftentimes summer break establishes different routines, activities, and flexibility within days. Transitioning back to more structured days and weeks can sometimes come with worries or excitement, difficulties, and dysfunction for children, youth, and families. To support the transition back to school, consider the following tips.

Preparation

Preparing ahead of time is important, not in the moment. Preparation considerations can include:

• Bedtime: Beginning to get back into bedtime routines and bedtimes appropriate for school wake up are important to begin implementing a week or more before. This allows for your child’s sleep schedule to be rediscovered and work through any sleep difficulties prior to the week of school beginning. You can make the transition easier by gradually shifting your child’s bedtime by 15–20 minutes each night until you reach a time that works well for your family. Remember, sleep is more than just rest, it plays a key role in helping your child feel happier, manage emotions, and feel their best throughout the day.
• School Environment: If your child may struggle with transitions and new beginnings, it could be helpful to consider connecting with your child’s school ahead of time. This can allow for open lines of communication of sharing your child’s needs and navigating opportunities to make the transition more successful. For example, having a meet and greet with their new teacher, becoming familiarized with their school classroom/environment, meeting supports they can go to at the school.
• Social Connections: Has your child spent time with peers outside of school in the summer? Social connections occur daily upon return to school, and supporting the ease of socializing, considering scheduling playdates/hangouts with your children’s friends can be helpful with the socialization aspect of returning to school.
• Nutrition: Support your child in building a meal consistency, similarly, structured to school nutrition breaks. Food provides your children with the energy and nourishment they need to grow, learn, play, and support their overall well-being.

Feelings

Varying emotions may surface around the transition back to school, as there may be excitement, optimism or nervousness, worries.

• Provide space for emotions and conversations: Consider providing space to talk about school, and feelings towards school. You can approach this by being curious and inviting an open conversation. For example, you might ask, “How are you feeling about starting Grade ___?” It is helpful to begin these conversations well before the first week of school, giving your child time to share their thoughts, ask questions, and talk about any worries or excitement they may have.
• Validation: Providing validation and empathy for your child’s emotions helps them feel seen, heard, and understood. Rather than trying to fix or agree with their emotions, you are providing a space of acknowledgement to their feelings. Here are a couple simple validation statements: “That sounds really hard to deal with,” or “I can see why you feel that way.”
• Self-compassion/self-kindness: As parents, your child can benefit from self-compassion and kindness when getting into back-to-school mode. This fosters lower stress and allows for learning opportunities. Reminding your child, they are human and asking them what they may say to a friend can be different approaches to consider when your child may be hard on themselves.

Change

Change often comes with the beginning of a new school year: new teacher, new classmates, new classroom environment, and sometimes even a new school. Here are three tips for navigating change with your child:

Help your child identify the new opportunities that may come with change:

• New teacher – could allow for a new adult figure in their world to confide in and learn from.
• New classmates can provide opportunities to build new friendships, strengthen social skills, and develop confidence in connecting with others.
• New classroom environment – could allow for your child to develop and enhance their life skills, adapting to new classroom rules and structure.

Reach Out for Support

Should you recognize a great amount of discomfort in your child’s return to school conversations or challenges continuing past the first week of school, please consider connecting your child with a therapist to help build individualized coping strategies and support.