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Talking to your child about their first day of school: A top teacher’s secrets

Posted by Theme Park Mom on August 16, 2010 | 2 Comments

Kleenex Brand Tissues with Sneeze Shield arranged for me and my daughter to have lunch with National Teacher Hall of Fame member Patrice McCrary a few weeks ago.

Mrs. McCrary shared some tips to help us get ready for the school year. Then the conversation turned to the anxieties that children have about starting school.

I have always been a believer in validating those concerns. While our first instinct as parents is probably to say, “There’s nothing to be nervous about, it’s going to be great!”, I don’t think that’s fair. I get nervous on my first day of a new job or in just about any new situation, so I think kids need to hear that being nervous is natural, rather than hearing that there’s nothing to worry about.

Mrs. McCrary said she agrees with my strategy, and then she shared some great insight. She has been teaching for 20 years, and as a kindergarten teacher, she has been able to identify the three major worries than many kindergartners have in starting school. She says they break down like this:

1. Who is my teacher and will she like me?
2. How will I get my food?
3. What is my mom going to do without me?

I was struck by these simple concerns and how easy it is for parents to help kids work through them:

Who is my teacher and will she like me?

• Be sure to go to your school’s “Meet Your Teacher” day so that your child knows the teacher before school starts.
• Many teacher’s have classroom Web sites. (Like my sister’s 2nd grade class Web site) Look yours up and go through it with your child. There will probably be pictures of the teacher and information about him or her.
• Talk with your child about his or her strengths and character and reinforce how likeable he or she is.

How will I get my food?

• If your child will carry his or her lunch to school, practice at home once or twice by packing lunch in the lunchbox and letting your child open it and eat it at lunchtime. Be sure to practice cleaning up, too.
• If your child will be eating in a school cafeteria, be sure to find the cafeteria with your child during orientation or registration at the school.
• Ask an older child in your neighborhood to talk with your child about how lunch “works” at your school.

What is my mom going to do without me?

• First, watch how you are communicating with (and in front of) your child about the start of school. We tend to say things like, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with him at home” or “I am just devastated that my baby is starting kindergarten.” Your children will take this seriously, so try to watch how you are verbalizing those feelings.
• Talk with your child about what you will be doing during the school day.

You can read more of Mrs. McCrary’s tips at Kleenex Brand’s back to school site.

Photo by Flickr user Pink Sherbet Photography.