Going back to school after having a long period of time off can be a stressful for families and especially children. Although there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding school re-openings and what it will look like, there are ways you can prepare your family for going back to school in order to make the process easier and less stressful.

Get organized: Creating a new school-day routine, making sure to give yourself and your family enough time to get everything done will ease the stress of going back to school. Buy all of the supplies you and your children will need and put everything in an easy to access location in your home. Also, get your child involved in organizing and shopping. Allow them to pick out the colors they want for the backpack or notebooks. The more involved they are and the more they know about the process, the better they will feel.

Talk to your children: Having a chat with your child(ren) about their fears or worries about going back to school will enable you to provide them with the correct information and support in order to feel more confident about going back to school. Letting your child know that their feelings are valid and heard can make a huge difference in how they feel about the situation and help them to adjust.

Communicate with your children’s teachers: Once you know what your child’s fears and worries are, communicate them, along with your own to your child’s teachers. Teachers will be grateful for the information and be best able to make sure your child has a positive experience if they have the information they need. Make sure to check-in regularly with your teachers to see how things are going and what you can do at home to help.

Practice your routine before school reopens: A couple of weeks before the big day, start running through the new back to school routine so that yourself and your family can get used to it. Start waking up and getting ready at the time you would on a school day, and run through everything you would need to do on a school day. This will help to get your family ready for going back to school, ease the stress and the new routine won’t be as much of a shock to the system.

Check-in with your children and family members: Once the return to school has happened, don’t let things slip. Keep checking in with your children, family member and teachers. Continually assessing how things are going and how things can improve will help things to get easier and nip problems in the bud a lot earlier.

How are you feeling about your child going back to school? Do you have any of the above strategies in place?