How to Prepare Toddlers and Young Kids for the New School Year
- Southbay Parent Coaching
- Aug 6, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 15, 2024
1) Consider their unique temperament
When starting a new school/school year, each child will approach the situation uniquely depending on their temperament. For example, an easy-going child may go with the flow and adapt more easily to a new classroom, as opposed to a rigid and intense child who may prefer specific routines and scream that they hate their new school. Some temperaments that may struggle include those that are: highly sensitive, not as adaptable, intense, and slow to warm up. These children may need more interventions and preparation when it comes to starting the school year, such as visual schedules, social stories, or role playing.
2) Read books and watch videos about school
By seeing the bravery of a character in a book, or video, this can help inspire bravery in your child. Many books are helpful in normalizing feelings of worry, or anxiety when starting a new school. However, if these are not feelings that your child has, you can also choose to skip over these sections if you feel like it may create the feeling for them.
When reading the book, it is helpful to ask process questions along the way:
“How do you think the character feels?”
“How would you feel as a new kid?”
Additionally, you can also share your personal experiences with your child. For example: “When I was starting a new school, I felt a bit nervous too. Then I met a really cool friend and loved going every day.”
I really like the book Maisy Goes to Preschool on helping a child get ready for school.
3) Work on self-help and life skills
Often parents focus on the academic skills that they believe are necessary for preschool, or kindergarten, such as learning the ABCs or number recognition. However, they forget to target the skills that make a young child’s day easier and potentially reduce the likelihood of a tantrum. The more self-help skills a child has, the better able they can handle a challenging situation, such as being able to open up a fruit pouch, or twisting the door knob by themselves.
Some beneficial self-help skills include:
-Putting on their shoes
-Pulling up their underwear
-Zipping up their backpack
-Opening up their lunchbox
Check out this article for more important life skills your child should learn before starting school.
4) Practice playing school
You can practice playing school at home and role play the different parts of the school day, such as circle time, lunch time, or taking turns with toys. You can role play yourself, or use toys to model the situations with. Also, you can incorporate challenging situations to see how your child will problem solve it, such as holding onto a toy and not sharing it. Make sure to provide the correct response if your child is unsure how to handle the situation.
5) Get familiar with the new school, teachers, and friends
Visit the school with your child and walk by the common areas, including where they would eat lunch and go to the bathroom. You can even take pictures, or videos of the school and new classroom and watch these videos at home with your child (i.e. video modeling). Make sure to create a conversation about it, such as talking about their thoughts and feelings towards starting the new school. If possible, also try to meet the teacher and schedule playdates with the new students.
6) Get their buy-in
Have your child help choose their clothes for the new school year as well as their backpack, lunch pail, and other school supplies to increase their buy-in with the process. You can even have them help make their lunch for the day, if that increases their motivation to go.
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