Tips on how to help kids have an easy transition back to school
Books are being purchased and uniforms dug out of the cupboard as the first day of school for 2020 nears. Here are tips on making the transition from holiday mode to school easier.
Education
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Parents are being encouraged to beat the back-to-school blues by setting a routine and hitting the books early.
Students return to public schools across the state from January 29 after almost six weeks of summer holiday.
Matific education expert and former teacher Brent Hughes said returning to school could be a shock for children, and parents could ease the difficult transition by preparing them now.
Mr Hughes recommends that parents impose bedtime and wake-up routines, serve “brain” food and read with their children daily.
“As a teacher, you could always tell the children who had come from a theme park the day before school goes back,” he said. “It’s not an easy transition so it can be good to get them back into routine a week or week-and-a-half before school starts.
“It makes it easier for the kids to have their brains ready to go for formal learning.”
Mr Hughes said students still in “holiday mode” could find it difficult to concentrate for long periods, often become tired in the afternoon and struggle to remember what they had learnt.
“If adults go on a big holiday and go back to work, it can take a while to adjust,” he said.
“Children are the same, and their education is so important.
“It is important that parents are thinking about these things now so their child can be as ready as possible to go back to school and so that, as a teacher, you have a classroom of kids ready to learn from day one.”
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Siblings Matteo, 8, and Esta, 7, and friend Leah, 7, are preparing to return to St Oliver Plunkett Primary School in Pascoe Vale.
Leah’s mother, Tory Tempone, said the shift out of holiday mode could be made easier by preparing earlier.
“My rule of thumb is to get the routine back two weeks before Leah goes back to school,” she said.
“Trying to get her to eat lunch at the same time as school would and in general bedtimes, dinner, everything needs to go back in order … if not it causes a bit of chaos.”
“There is a lot of excitement, a bit of nerves and a mix of emotions.”
monique.hore@news.com.au