It won’t be long before our children will be heading back-to-school. For some children this is an exciting time, but for others it’s a time that can be fraught with worry and concern. Dr. Michele Borba has graciously agreed to offer us tips here on 2 Wired 2 Tired to help us best prepare our little ones for the upcoming school year.
Dr. Borba is well qualified to offer parenting advice as she is an NBC contributor who has appeared on the Today Show over 80 times as a parent expert. She serves on boards for Parents magazine, Character Education Partnership, the Boys & Girls Club of America, and she writes the blog “Parenting Solutions” for iVillage. She is also an award winning author of 23 books and has won the National Educator Award.
Tired Mom Tésa – Hello, Dr. Borba. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. With the school starting soon, do you have any tips on how to best reduce back-to-school anxiety in preschoolers and kindergartners?
Dr. Michele Borba – First, don’t up it too much. Don’t say, “Kindergarten is so exciting! You’re going to have so much fun!” If we keep upping it, they may be disappointed once school does start. So keep it tempered.
Also, kids this age really have no concept of time, so telling them school is going to start in a couple of weeks may just build the anxiety because they can’t put time in context. If you have a child who is very excited about school, however, get them a calendar and mark off the days until school starts.
Another way to reduce fears is about a week or two before classes begin go there. Drive by the school, walk the playground, visit the classrooms if you can. This will really help reduce anxiety.
Also, get your children involved in back-to-school shopping. Even at a young age you can have them look at the back-to-school store fliers and they can cut out the items they need and paste them on index cards. Then when you go to the store have them match the price on the item with the price of the picture on the index card. Doing this helps their cut and paste skills and the matching is a basic reading skill.
You can even take it one step further and have the child put their items on the checkout counter. He can then watch the prices add up and if the total is over the budget, you can help him choose which item to put back. You can then use your Upromise World MasterCard from Bank of America to pay for it and let him know you chose this card because, not only will it pay for the back-to-school items, but also because 1% of it will go to his college fund.
Doing this helps lessen the anxiety of going back to school and also teaches children financial literacy especially when you incorporate explaining why you chose to pay with a specific card as well as how to stick to a budget.
On a side note, when having conversations with children about going to college, start very early on saying “when you go to college,” not “if.”
Tired Mom Tésa – Do you have any advice for preparing children for the change from the summer vacation routine to the fall school year?
Dr. Michele Borba - The biggest adjustment is the sleep schedule. Everyone stays up later in the summer. Start the school year routine about a week before school starts by winding it back slowly. Every night start the bedtime routine 15 minutes earlier until it matches the school year routine. You can have your child pick out a new alarm clock so they can have fun turning it off in the morning when it rings. If you have upcoming playdates, let your children practice picking out what to wear for them so they can do so when school starts.
Tired Mom Tésa – The start of the school year always seems to bring out cases of separation anxiety. Do you have any tips on how to ease this transition?
Dr. Michele Borba – Yes. Your kids mirror you. If you’re anxious, they’re anxinous. If you’re calmer, they’re calmer. Temper yourself. Start making sure that those who have never been away have some time to separate from you through playdates with their classmates.
When you drop your child off, less is always better. If they are overly anxious you can say, “The first thing you’re going to do is look for____,” and mention the classmate they previously had playdates with. Practice a special good-bye. It can be a kiss, a nose-kiss, a special wave, something special between you two. Also, for those children that are very concerned, you put something in their pocket and tell them every time they touch it they will know you are thinking of them.
Tired Mom Tésa – Thank you, Dr. Borba! Those are wonderful tips and I think they will help get us of to a great start this school year!
Dr. Borba will be holding a live chat that is open to everyone, on August 12th at 1 pm EST at Facebook.com/Upromise. She will be available to answer parenting questions with a special focus on how to save for college.
If you are looking for more back-to-school tips visit the Credit Card Center at Upromise for dozens of tips from Upromise.
Thank you to Dr. Michele Borba and Upromise for this interview. No compensation was received.
I like the “when you go to college” advice-we have been saying this to our kids for as long as I can remember…
Very insightful interview — I especially love the tips to avoid “upping” the first day of school to much and to remember that kids often mirror us and our emotional state. Definitely words to live by for every day of the year. Thanks for sharing!