Easing Your Kids Back into the School Year

Lazy summer days will be gone before we know it and the routine of a new school year will quickly be setting in!  As parents, we always want to make transitions from one thing to another as easy for our children as we can.  And, the end of an unstructured summer transitioning back into the demanding routines and pressures of school is no exception.

Here are some parenting tips to get you through the last few weeks of summer and transition back into school with ease:

1. Try to avoid over-entertaining your kids.   Although it is good to have fun together, your children shouldn’t be so addicted to excitement that they go into shock when they return to the classroom.
2. If your family has gotten out of the routines of such activities as family meal times and chores, start making a habit to return them to your daily routine again.  Beginning to integrate habits back into your summer will make it less difficult to do once school starts.
3. Limit television, video games, and other highly stimulating electronic entertainment and begin having them to spend at least thirty minutes each day reading, writing stories and/or creating science projects.
4. Begin the transition back to the school bedtime. The longer days of summer tend to lead to later bedtimes. Start no less than one week before school starts so that their bodies can used to the routine.
5. Establish the same expectations for behavior at home as they will face at school.  Consistency with discipline and expectations will make the transition from home to school much easier.

Structure is so important for kids and even though we all love the spontaneity and relaxed feeling of summer we will quickly grow to appreciate once again the routine that school bring.

Kathy Jenkins is the President of Come To Order, a residential professional organizing company in Richmond, VA.  As a Certified Professional Organizer^®, Certified Family Manager^® Coach, Love & Logic^® Parenting Facilitator/Coach and Student Organizer, Kathy especially enjoys working with kids and their families to help them learn good organizational skills that will benefit them for a lifetime.  To learn more about Love & Logic Parenting, visit Kathy at The Organizing Tutor.