Rock Back to School with Your Littles

Back to School.

Those words can be loaded with STRESS- for us as parents and for our littles! While fun, sometimes the newness and the things that need to be done can be STRESSFUL and dysregulating for our emotions. SO, we’ve put together some of our TOP tips to help you as parents and your littles to ROCK this year’s back to school!

TIP #1 – Get back into your routine

Summer is FUN- long days, sunshine and memory making! These are the good things in life, and returning to routines of bed time and get up and go can be hard. We recommend giving yourself some time to do this. Starting a regular bed time before the long weekend and having some time at home as you prepare for back to school can be helpful. Don’t feel bad setting boundaries or saying “NO “to long weekend adventures. This prep can help your littles in the long run

Tip #2- Build Bridges

Often, many children have worries about a new school year. For children who worry about being away from parents, our best advice is to build an invisible attachment bridge between you and them. Start talking about school now, about their teacher and things you know about. When you are doing a drop off, talk about what you will do after school together. If they show big feelings, listen and validate them. Saying something like “It is scary to have to do sometime new, you are brave and I know you can do hard things”. Try to avoid using reassurance by saying things like “you will be okay” or “it will be fun or fine”. Focus on listening and planning for the worry if it were to happen. Some good books to help with these types of ideas are “The Kissing Hand” or “The Invisible String”

Tip # 3- Take care of stressors

With back to school comes new stressors. Lunches that need to be packed, outfits to be picked and bus pick up times. Take a few moments as a parent and think about what stresses you out. Try to take care of those kinds of tasks ahead. The more we as parents can regulate our emotions, the more our littles will follow along. Using something like a morning check-list of tasks for your little can also be a way to take care of some of the stressful routines.

Tip # 4 – PLAY

Play is a remarkably powerful tool for connection. We are not talking kids playing on the floor and parents making dinner. We are talking about adults being right there with the littles in play. Whether it be a creative project, a game of catch or monopoly or some kind of make believe. Connection is built through play. Join your littles in these last days of summer and invest in play- this will do you more in the long run of the relationship than getting all the tasks done. Of course, be gentle with yourself, real life is real life and adulating and parenting has so many elements and tasks to get done- you can’t play all day, try and give yourself permission to play once a day!

Parents, you got this! We wish you luck in the back to school process and are here for you to support you! If you have any questions about what you have read here or want to dive into any of the tips further give us a call or give us a message to set something up. 

Click HERE to download our free Back to School Guide.