|
Helpful Hints for Back to School 
We thought we would share a few tips to help you prepare for Back-to-School. Remember that all tips and advice for your child should be age specific. Each grade has its own challenges and each child needs instruction at their own learning level.
One of our best pieces of advice is a tactic we use with our Afterschool and Camp groups. We call it preframing. This is a simple tool that really pays off for many reasons. Your goal is to think through the key moments of the back to school event and alert your child as to what to expect. You should outline the day in the most positive words possible. Remember that everyone (adults and especially kids) gets many of the messages in our communication from our body language and what we do matters as much as what we say. So take advantage of this and plan a time for you to sit with your child, ask for her attention and participation and then present going back to school in the most positive way. You can do this by using words like different and unusual instead of scary and frightening. Also, give solutions in situations where your child might be unfcomfortable. For example, encourage your child to make a journal of their first week at school and write down situations that are unfamiliar or that she didn't like. Then you can go over the journal each night and help her work through new feelings. You can explain any unusual situations that came up, ask how she dealt with it and praise her for positive actions.
If your child is going to a new school then you should encourage him to learn as much as possible about the new campus, the new schedule and make some new friends. Many times they might know fellow Kimling's Academy students from their classes here. If you would like us to check and see if we have someone from your child's school in karate we can perhaps make an introduction that helps make a new school feel more familiar.
The most important thing for you as a parent to remember is that you are not alone. If there is anyway we can help at Kimling's Academy you know we will. Just remember that we have found that all of our efforts are much more effective if we are proactive rather than reactive. We will be glad to help if you find there is a problem with your child's behavior but we are more excited about working with a parent and child who are trying to prevent a problem from occurring. Call us or stop us at the school whenever you feel the need to talk to us.
Best of luck with Back-to-School from all of us at Kimling's Academy. We look forward to partnering with you on this exciting journey with your school-aged child.
|
