Making the Back to School Routine Easier

With the new school year beginning, it is a good time for some 'new year' resolutions.  Here are the top 5 new school year resolutions we suggest you and your kids follow for the new school year 2014/2015.

Remember your manners: No one is going to pass you up on a job because you didn’t know all the prime numbers that divide evenly into 72, but being impolite during an interview is the fastest way out the door.  Get into the habit now: maintain eye contact, remember the “please” and “thank you”, and the response to “How are you?” is not “Fine”, it’s “I’m fine.  How are you?”  Thank your teacher for the handout, introduce yourself to the supply teacher, and hold doors open for people.  Someone might hold the door open for you next.

Be prepared for the uncertainty of the future.  These are anxious times: getting used to a new teacher, new classroom, new rules, and even some new classmates. Talk to your kids about these new experiences as they get home from school, encourage them to do their best academically and socially. Tell them they are still learning and they will make mistakes, and that they will learn from those mistakes. If required, be your child’s advocate and speak with teachers and administrators about your child’s anxieties to come up with a mutual game plan.

Get into a routine. Create and maintain a home environment that will help your children be well rested during regular school days and during the week of testing. In that same vein, make sure they also maintain a healthy diet and exercise regularly.  You’d be surprised how much a bit of exercise helps.

Read.  The only way to get better at reading is to read.  The reading will also improve your child’s grammar and writing skills, because things will start sounding right. Make time for reading together as part of your daily routine. You’ll be amazed how your child improves when they read daily, and reading together is a great bonding experience. So read, talk about what you read, and read some more.

Take a multiple intelligences survey.  Understand how your child learns best, and add that type of learning to projects and homework which will be marked.  Is your child a visual learner, or an auditory learner? They don’t necessarily have to fit into just one category, but could learn well in a couple of different areas. Your teacher might have some good ideas on how your child should study and revise for tests, so ask him or her. With that said, you child needs to work on the skills in the other types of learnings as well, as they will add to their study skills repertoire as they go up the grades.

Best of luck with the new school year.