Back to School Simple and Stress-Free: Part 3

With a little planning, you can make going back to school simple and stress-free.

By GreatSchools Staff

As the lazy days of summer slip away, it will soon be time to put away the beach chairs and corner lemonade stands and prepare for going back to school. Here are some tips to make the transition easier.

Set priorities and schedules

To make the best use of your time and keep life from being harried, think about priorities for family members and then schedule them into the week.

For children

•Before school begins, discuss what extracurricular activities your child will participate in. If your child needs a little extra encouragement to audition for jazz band or to take that early morning Italian class, now is the time to go over the benefits of these activities. If, however, your child needs to have limits set, have her pick her favorite activities and forgo the rest. Be realistic and don't fall victim to over-programming.

•Make sure to leave enough time to do homework and for family time.

For parents

Determine how much time you can give to the school each month as a volunteer and involved parent: in the classroom, on field trips, for fundraising events and on school-wide committees.

For the family

Start a family calendar in a common area where each family member can write down his or her activities.

Back to School Simple and Stress-Free: Part 2

With a little planning, you can make going back to school simple and stress-free.
By GreatSchools Staff

As the lazy days of summer slip away, it will soon be time to put away the beach chairs and corner lemonade stands and prepare for going back to school. Here are some tips to make the transition easier.

Shopping: take advantage of sales

School clothes

It's always a great idea to buy what you know you'll need early, if you can. Go through your children's wardrobes and weed out everything they've outgrown. By reducing the clutter, you will be able to get them dressed quickly and easily.

Keep in mind school dress codes while shopping. Some schools prohibit short skirts and tank tops for girls and "sagging" (baggy trousers that hang low) for boys. Schools may also have rules regarding printed words or phrases on clothes.

School supplies

Although it's difficult to predict what different teachers will require, you can get ahead of the game by buying certain staples. Here's a general list of items that elementary school students usually need:

•Glue stick

•Scissors

•No. 2 pencils

•Eraser

•Colored pencils

•Box of crayons

•Kleenex

•Water-based markers

•Ballpoint pens

•Notebooks

•Binder

•Loose-leaf notebook paper

•Pocket folders

•Printer paper

•Drawing paper

•Construction paper

•A plastic ruler with English and metric measurements

•Pencil sharpener

•School box (for storing items)

•Scotch tape

•Stapler

•Backpack

Here are some additional items middle and high school students usually need:

•Two combination locks (one for the hall locker and one for the gym locker)

•Binder dividers

•Calculator

Nutrition: plan healthy meals

Get creative with easy, healthy ideas for school-day meals. If you plan and gather what you need on the weekends, you'll make life a lot less stressful and meals more nutritious during the week.

Breakfast

Remember the most important meal of the day. Fruit smoothies make a quick and healthy addition to the usual fare.

Lunch

If you will be packing a lunch from home, be sure to have a sturdy lunch box or a supply of paper bags on hand. Here are some quick and creative ideas for making school lunches healthy and fun:

•For the younger child, use cookie cutters to make sandwiches into interesting shapes.

•Sneak vegetables like lettuce, cucumber or zucchini slices into sandwiches.

•Buy baked chips and low-fat crackers or pretzels. Avoid items with trans fats in them such as packaged cookies, snack cakes and regular chips.

•Choose 1% or fat-free milk or 100% fruit juices.

•Make fruit fun to eat by cutting it into slices and putting it on a skewer or include small containers of applesauce or pineapple packed in its own juice.

•For the younger child, write a surprise message or draw a funny picture and put it in her lunch.

•Get older children to help pack their lunches. You may need to arrange the morning routine (or evening routine if you do this the night before) so that you don't do this chore by yourself.

Dinner

Plan dinners for the week ahead and shop on the weekends to avoid last minute trips to the grocery store.

Back to School Simple and Stress-Free: Part 1

With a little planning, you can make going back to school simple and stress-free.
By GreatSchools Staff

As the lazy days of summer slip away, it will soon be time to put away the beach chairs and corner lemonade stands and prepare for going back to school. Here are some tips to make the transition easier.

1. Adjust to the new routine

Ease into the school-year schedule. Getting back into the school routine can be a challenge for everyone in the family. To make the adjustment easier, start early.

•A few weeks before school starts, move bedtime back to an earlier time.

•Put a positive spin on going back to school. Talk about the fun things your child will learn, the old friends he'll see and the new friends he'll make.

•If your child is anxious about starting the next grade, reassure her that other children have these feelings too.

•Don't make plans for big trips right before the start of school

•Establish school-day schedules for homework, TV, baths and bedtime.

•Arrange play dates with friends from school to re-establish connections that may have been dropped for the summer, or to create new one.

2. Get organized

Take advantage of the slower pace during your time away from school to set up for the busy school year ahead.

•Many schools send out school information and a packet of forms to fill out before school starts. If you can discipline yourself to fill out the paperwork several days before it's due, you'll avoid a last-minute panic.
•Have the necessary immunization records available for easy reference.
•Update school emergency contact and health information for the coming year.
•As you read through all the school information, mark important dates (such as back-to-school night, parent-teacher conferences and school holidays) on the family calendar.
•Start a folder for school newsletters and other papers so that you can easily find and refer to them if necessary.
•Establish a "get ready the night before" policy. Pick clothes for the next day and pack the backpack every evening before bedtime, and you'll save precious time in the morning.

Back-to-school clothes: Shopping for your young child

Back-to-school clothes: Shopping for your young child

When choosing school clothes for your younger child, keep her comfort, safety and growing independence in mind.
By GreatSchools Staff

Your 6-year-old excitedly exclaims that he can tie his shoes! Never mind that his socks don't match and it's likely his sneakers will come untied before he gets out the door. This is an exciting milestone, and you'll want to encourage his efforts. Along with mastering the art of dressing himself, your youngster can also begin making some choices about what he wears. Include him when you go shopping for his back-to-school wardrobe.

•At home, have your child try on last year's school clothes - it's a chance to applaud how much she's grown (and what she's outgrown). Work together on a list of new clothes to buy.

•Before you buy, check with your child's school to see if there's a dress code or if any particular types of clothing are prohibited.

•Make sure everyone is well rested and fed before you set out on a shopping expedition. Full tummies decrease the risk of meltdowns and uncooperative behavior.

•Look for clothing that's machine washable and easy to keep clean. If you need to label your child's clothes, be sure there's room on the tags inside to do so. If your child is extra-sensitive to scratchy labels and tags, either cut the tags out or buy some of the new "tag-free" garments on the market.

•Keep it simple. Look for mix-and-match separates in coordinating colors. It's important to choose clothing that has simple fasteners; large buttons, zippers with pull rings, elastic waistbands and large neck openings make it easy for a young child to dress himself. Avoid complicated lacings, belts and sashes.

•Keep your child's safety in mind. Drawstrings, floppy or wide pant legs and slippery soled shoes should be discouraged.

•Look for sturdy shoes with good heel strength. High quality sneakers or flat shoes are recommended by podiatrists. No flip flops! To ensure shoes fit properly, there should be a thumb's width between the end of the big toe and the end of the shoe.

•Keep your fashion standards flexible. If clothes meet your requirements - appropriate, safe, easy to wash and within your budget - let your child choose the color and style.

•Watch for store-wide sales and special promotions. You can also cash in on free shipping offers on Internet orders and "tax-free" shopping days available in some states. (Check to see if your state is one of them here.)

Your Child Must Have Self Control

We must teach our children to have self-control. They must be able to control their anger and manage any conflict they are confronted with in life. Building self-confidence and teaching children to cope with stressful situations is extremely important. Our children must have self-awareness and set realistic goals with realistic timetables to complete these goals all while managing frustration, set-backs and disappointment.

Raising our children to have self-control means modeling self-control in our every day lives. We will never have children who manage anger properly if we don't show them how. Teach them how to accept criticim, admit mistakes and know the difference between right and wrong. Teach them how to respectfully stand up for themselves and when to stop and perhaps count to ten or even to one hundred if necessary. Let them know we all learn from our mistakes and we can continually work to improve our behavior and self-control at all times.

Know Your Family's History

How many of us know much about our family's history? Start out by making a simple family tree. Make sure you include your children in this activity. Go as far as you can on your own. Contact other family members to fill in what they know. Post information on your blog, facebook,or research family on line. It will take on a life of its own and you can find family members you never knew existed. My family recently found family members just this week. It was truly exciting! So, develop a sense of family history and find out some very interesting fact.

Tip #79: Make Sure Your Child Has A Good Working Relationship With Their Teacher.

Tip #79: Make Sure Your Child Has A Good Working Relationship With Their Teacher.

Parents must make sure their child has a good relationship with the teacher. If your child is having problems getting along with the teacher there are somethings you can do. This can be accomplished by strategically getting involved and preventing the teacher-child relationship from deteriorating further. Here are some suggestions from Stacy DeBroff, author of "The Mom Book Goes to School".

1. Tell the teacher the concerns your child expresses, and ask for the teacher's insights. Don't be confrontational, listen to their prospective, and come up with potential solutions.

2. Be aware that the teacher might not remember things perfectly, so unless there was a major incident you are concerned about, focus on fixing issues for the future, not getting the most accurate account of what has already happened.

3. Address problems in the child-teacher relationship directly to your child's teacher. Advocate for your child by repeating their concerns in a meeting without the child. You can say, "This issue concerns me because I am not sure why my child has this perception. I would like to make you aware of it and hear what you think and how we can turn this perception around."

Always try to handle these situations calmly and even handily. It will make all the difference in the child-teacher relationship for the rest of the year and years to come.