10 Tips for Your Family's Back to School Prep

As a new first day of school approaches, your family may be filled with excitement, anticipation, and possibly, a bit of nerves. To ease your transition from summer to back-to-school, our Primary team (guides for ages 3–6) shared ten tips to help prepare for a great first day!

1. Start restoring the bedtime routine to support your student’s most joyful return to school.

To determine when your student should be going to sleep, base it on their age and their wake up time in the morning. The National Sleep Foundation has advice on determining sleep schedules.

2. Practice with new school gear and materials to help students gain independence.

Play with lunch containers, backpacks, and any new shoe fasteners to help your child learn how to open and close, pack and unpack, roll or fold, and otherwise operate their gear independently. Now is the best time to realize and adjust if any particular items are too challenging for independence, then modify/exchange as needed—sometimes just a little more weekend practice is needed before tricky containers go into rotation.

3. Do a wardrobe scavenger hunt for clothing that needs a name label!

Make guesses about which type of clothing will need the newest labels—underpants or shirts? This is also an excellent opportunity to sort the “school clothes” from the “weekend clothes,” to store them separately for a more harmonious “getting ready” vibe when school is upon us.

4. Encourage independence at home, starting in the summer.

Think about the various ways your child can be independent in their routine (dressing themselves, choosing their clothes, packing lunch, making their bed, helping to make breakfast—what works best for your family.) Maybe do a test run to make sure there is enough time in the morning routine so that no one feels rushed. What routine might work best for your family (e.g., picking out clothing/packing a lunch the night before if mornings are difficult)?

5. Talk with your student about school and what they should expect.

Have conversations about starting school, what to expect, take advantage of seeing the classroom and teacher during a walk-through or drive by the school if it is new to your child. It will help them visualize where they will spend their time when away from family.

6. Discuss school in an exciting and positive light (especially with returning students).

For returning students, ask questions about the friends and teachers they miss, talk about how much everyone has probably grown, wondering about what people did over the summer.

For newer children, refresh their memories of visiting the school and show them a teacher's photo from the school's website.

7. Chat about some of the school routines you will follow.

Have conversations about new routines: when you’ll leave to be on time for arrivals (perhaps set a reminder that your child will hear when it’s time to walk to the door), which belongings your child will need to take each day (lunch, extra clothes to return to cubbies), which belongings will stay in the car at morning drop off.

8. Allow for extra time the first day.

Those extra minutes will support a calm response toward accepting unforeseen circumstances should they arise.

9. Create a personalized good-bye ritual on which your student can depend.

Include humor, affection, nurturing thoughts, whatever fits your style. Use the same routine, daily—children appreciate consistency. Don't forget to prepare for your own back-to-school feelings.

10. Assure your child you look forward to hearing about experiences at the end of the day.

Ask them to share their favorite, funniest, or surprising memories that happened to them.

We hope your family has a great first day of school! If you want to read more about this subject, we recommend:

• “The Kissing Hand” by Audrey Penn
• “Will I Have a Friend” by Miriam Cohen
• “Dad’s First Day?” by Mike Wohnoutka