40 Tips for School Success

Quality sleep is “Critical for brain development and has a direct influence on daytime functioning, performance, mood and behavior.” (“Back to School, Back to Sleep” Michael Breuss, Ph.D.)

1) Scale Back the Bedtime Hour - It’s easy in the summer to let bedtime slide. Before school begins start scaling back bedtime so that by the time school starts your child is rising at the same time s/he will have to get up for school.

Also start waking your child up a little earlier each day so that before schools starts, you’re mimicking the school schedule.

Here are sleep guidelines from “Sleepless in America” by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka:

• Preschoolers need 12 hours of sleep

• School-age children need 10 hours of sleep

• Adolescents need 9.25 hours of sleep

Help Your Child with September Transitions

Sept. is time for change and with change comes stress, anxiety and a sense of loss. Starting a new grade, getting a new teacher, learning new classroom rules, new kids in your class, more rigorous academics, more responsibility and more social demands can all cause stress.

An increase in temper tantrums, whining and defiance at home is common. Don’t take it personally!

The best response is to provide empathy and support, help your child gain a sense of control, provide rituals for predictability and teach your child how to de-stress.

2) Shop for school supplies with your child. Your child will gain a sense of ownership by picking his/her own supplies.

3) Provide learning time. Set aside at least 15-min. per day for educational opportunities before school starts.

4) Meet the teacher.

• If your school hosts a meet-the-teacher event be sure to go.

• Take a picture of the teacher with your child and put it on the refrigerator.

• Ask the teacher for an outline of the school day activities so you can prepare your child.

• Ask the teacher’s expectations for his/her homework.

• Make sure your child knows his/her way around the school.

5) Arrange a play date with a classmate before school starts.

6) End-of Summer ritual - It can be helpful to create a ritual with your kids that signals the end of summer. It might be creating a scrapbook of the summer’s events. It might be going to an amusement park for one last hurrah.

7) Develop a goodbye ritual. Develop a secret handshake used only when child leaves for school.

8) Develop an after-school ritual. Your child may want a snack, then play outside, or have 15- minutes of quiet time with you before homework begins.

9) Increase physical touch. Hug and snuggle more often or provide massage to reduce stress.

10) Teach a deep breathing method (Pretend there’s a balloon in their tummy to blow up. Breathe in by nose, breathe out with mouth, moving the diaphragm with big deep breaths.)

11) Consider dramatics. Let’s play school!

In Summary:

Respond with empathy, recognizing a sense of loss of the familiar.
Help you child gain control by involving them in decision-making.
Develop rituals to create predictability.
Offer soothing and calming activities.

Morning Strategies:

12) Determine all of the tasks to be done. Time them and make a cartoon chart with times noted.

13) Photocopy a picture of a clock and then write times that certain tasks need to be done on the picture of the clock so your child has a road map to follow to stay on task. i.e. eat breakfast at 7:30, brush teeth at 7:45 (Family Fun, “Smart Start, “ Sept. , 2006, p. 72)

14) Check the weather and lay out clothes the night before.

15) Insist on the back pack being ready and at the door.

16) Snack is packed the night before.

17) Lunch is packed the night before.

18) Play beat the clock. “I bet you can’t get XX done by the time the timer goes off.”

19) Set up a reward. If you’re ready by X time, s/he can read a book or watch a cartoon. Or your child can get a “Morning Surprise Bag” to open if s/he is ready on time. Small prize items are placed in a paper bag on the kitchen table each morning. (Family Fun, Sept. 2006.)

20) Child gets dressed before s/he eat. (www.organizedaudrey.com)

21) Get up before the kids and get some of your tasks done.

22) Iron and lay out your clothes the night before, too.

23) Allow 5-10 extra minutes each morning.

24) Make a reminder checklist for different days of the week. i.e. Mon. is library day, bring books, Tues. is gym, remember your tennis shoes, Wed. is band, bring instrument (Family Fun, “Get Organized” Sept. 2006, p. 74.)

25) Have toothbrushes and hair brushes on the main level in a basket in case of a rush.

26) Have shoes that are easy to get on. Consider zackaroos at www.zackaroos.com. (Organized Audrey at www.organizedAudrey.com)

Breakfast Tips for School Success

You really want your child to have a great school year. You’ve bought the right school supplies, new outfits and a back pack. The transportation plan is in place. Your child has met his/her teachers. Now it’s time to buckle down and give your child the boost s/he really needs to be successful during the day … a nutritious breakfast.

“Children who eat breakfast have been shown to get higher grades and are less likely to be as depressed, anxious, fidgety or irritable by parents and teachers,” said Debby Demory-Luce, a registered dietician with the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center.

“They also think faster and more clearly, concentrate better, suffer less fatigue and are less likely to end up in the nurse’s office complaining of tummy aches and dizziness.” (USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine: http://www.kidsnutrition.org/consumer/archives/breakfast-fuel.htm)

Studies show that kids who eat a nutritious breakfast pay closer attention, are more physically active, feel better and have more school success. (http://www.kidsnutrition.org/consumer/archives/school-pastry.htm)

In particular, protein and the minerals magnesium, iron and zinc along with essential fatty acids have been associated with increased communication among brain cells that promote learning, solving problems, paying attention and controlling emotional reactions. (“Parenting Children with ADHD: 10 Lessons that Medicine Cannot Teach,” Vincent Monastra, Ph.D., 2005, American Psychological Association, p. 76-77.)

Common problems that hinder your child from getting a nutritious breakfast:

27) We don’t have time. In order to provide your child with a nutritious breakfast you need to make sure that there’s time to actually eat it. Wake your child up 10-15 minutes earlier to allow time to eat. Have a menu of options\staples that you’ve pre-planned and child can check off what they’d like the night before.

28) My child’s not hungry when s/he wakes up. Pack the most nutrition possible into the least amount of food. Look for nutrition/breakfast bars that are packed with nutrients by reading the Nutrition Facts on the box. (Pria and Luna bars are two brands that are great.) Have your child wash it down with a glass of milk or 100% fruit juice (V-8 Diet Splash). Consider making your child a vitamin-rich high-protein breakfast shake or yogurt parfait.

29) My child’s not interested in eating well. Involve your child in experimenting with different breakfast choices. Create a menu of options that your child likes that are still nutritious. Also, consider adding soy protein (available at health food stores in bulk) to breakfast muffins or other baked foods. Take them to the grocery store to help pick the items. Have them help bake the muffins, etc.

If you’d like to educate your child on the importance of eating well, here’s a link to an article that describes children’s nutritional needs based on the food pyramid. http://kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/food/pyramid.html.

Or, children ages 6-11 can play an interactive game to learn about nutrition at this site: http://www.mypyramid.gov/kids/kids_game.html 

Here are some ideas for foods that will help your child get a jump start on his/her day:

• Peanut butter on whole grain toast, muffin or bagel

• A handful of his/her favorite nuts (i.e. ¼ C. cashews have 7 grams of protein)

• Trail mix combining ½ C. nuts with ¼ C. of dried fruit and ½ C. of whole grain cereal to make a trail mix

• Cheese or peanut butter tortilla (Mission Carb Balance Tortillas have 5 grams of protein ad 11 grams of fiber.)

• Calcium-fortified ready-to-eat cereal

• A yogurt, fruit and granola “parfait

• Ready-to-Whir Smoothie (Take ½ C. of fruit and ½ C. of yogurt and freeze them in zip-lock bags. In the morning, put this in a blender with ½ C. milk and ½ C. juice and blend.) (Family Fun, “A Better Breakfast,” Sept. 2006, p. 64.)

• Instant oatmeal (quick and very nutritious)

• Krusteaz Wheat and Honey Pancake Mix (Make a double batch and store them in a Ziploc bag and reheat another day.)

• Legal Donuts at http://www.thesneakychef.com/free_recipes.php

If you’d like to create a detailed nutritional plan, here are two options:

1) To calculate an individualized nutritional plan for your child go to: http://www.mypyramid.gov/mypyramid/index.aspx 

2) For a worksheet you or your child can use to track nutritional intake go to: http://www.mypyramid.gov/mypyramid/index.aspx 

You wouldn’t think of sending your child off to school without his/her backpack and supplies so why not think of a nutritious breakfast as another essential tool your child needs to have a great day and year at school?!

Organizational Ideas

30) Buy snacks in bulk and put them in snack-size bags/containers on Sun. for the week.

31) Pre-wash veggies and put in bags when you buy them. Wash fruit in the a.m. Put in baskets and have kids pick one from each basket for lunch. (Dessert, too, if you offer that.) Then just pack the sandwich in the morning.

32) Use an in-out file system for each child. Child empties school papers in the in box and you put them in the out box after you’ve signed them.

33) Have a three-ring binder for each child with topic dividers for school, sports, other activities. Place items in clear plastic sheet protectors.

34) Use colored folders for each day of the week. Put papers in the Mon.- Fri. file that each form is due.

35) Use a three-ring binder for each child with clear plastic sleeves that hold school assignments they want to keep for the year.

36) Keep a clean pizza box to store art work. Sort “keepers” at the end of the year.

37) Use a dry-erase wall calendar color-coded for each family member to list activities. (Staples. Office Depot.)

38) Keep a master copy of all the kids’ teams, rosters, game schedules, phone numbers and permission slips, school calendar at work, too.

Preparing for Homework

39) Create a Homework Basket - While you’re shopping for school supplies, have your child pick a homework basket. This basket should contain all of the supplies that will be necessary to complete homework i.e. lots of pencils and erasers, a ruler, scissors, paper, markers, etc. These supplies should be used exclusively for homework to prevent dawdling/excuses when it comes time to do homework.

40) With your child, select a place where they’ll do their homework. Make sure it’s comfortable and free of distraction.