Back to School
Tips for success, morning and night!
Set a morning routine.
Work backwards from leaving the house to list what needs to happen in the morning.
Teach them to use an alarm.
Guess how much time it will take to get ready, and pick a wake-up time.
Practice!
Afternoons are best to start. Use the alarm and walk through their routine together.
Prioritize bedtime.
A good Bedtime Routine is usually 10-30 minutes.
Give them 9-10 hours of lights-out sleep time.
Start early.
Start working on good sleep at least 2 weeks before the first day of school. If kids are staying up late, start by moving wake-up times.
Back to School Sleep Tips
Plan for stress - you can’t avoid it!
If you or your child feel stressed around the start of school, that makes you normal! We should expect a big transition like starting school to bring big feelings. Here are some ways to minimize the impact and maximize the opportunities to bond.
Help them describe their feelings. Start with how big they are (the color system is great). Then try to give a more specific name (like angry, sad, scared, nervous). Then help them choose a distraction or problem solving.
Distractions are a good short-term fix. Screens can be good, but too much screen time can make things worse in the long run, so you still need boundaries.
It won’t take much to overstimulate your kid, so be careful not to overfill their brains. Whether they like it or not, kids need family time and alone time.
Problem solving is a great idea, but we need to be careful to let them be the problem solvers. Our job is to coach the ideas out of them.