Bring on Big School – Tried and Tested Tips by Dana Smith Bader in OTR Blog
“The end of your child’s time in a nursery is almost here. Next, September your child must transition from the cozy environment of the nursery to BIG SCHOOL! To help you help your child with this transition, this week we examine tried and tested tips for getting your child ready to start school.”
I thought sending my first daughter to nursery was a big transition until BIG SCHOOL started looming on the horizon. Once again, I had to research and visit schools, talk to the heads, meet the teachers, bring my child for an assessment (what?!?), and prepare my little princess (and myself) for the big day. As I visited the schools and met the teachers, I had one thought in my mind, “How did this day come so quickly?” Well, maybe I had two or three thoughts in my head, “How can I take her from the nursery she loves?” and “How will she cope with the rigors of big school?” Well, maybe I had a million thoughts, all of them spinning through the tumble dryer of my mind. Needless to say, I was anxious about the transition, and I did not want to pass my anxiousness onto my daughter. I wanted her to look forward to a big school and transition with courage and confidence.
To help her (and myself) transition well, I had to get on the ball and find a way to help her move as seamlessly as possible from nursery to big school. Fortunately, my friends with older kids had a lot of advice, and I was able to find some very useful tips from teachers and other childcare experts. What follows is a summary of some tried and tested tips I followed that really helped my daughter’s transition:
- Attend the orientation or welcome day at the new school
- Work on skills and practice self-care
- Prepare them for a big school by reading books about going to school
- Get them excited about school gear
- Prepare your child for the first day
- Expect regression
- Check your feelings
You have three months until the first day of school in September. The groundwork you lay now will help to ease the transition for your child. Instead of stressing about the big day, take positive steps to prepare your child. The more you do now, the less you will struggle when school starts. With these simple tips, you and your child will be saying, “Bring on BIG SCHOOL!”
Click here to read the full article
by Dana Smith Bader, Director, Over The Rainbow Nursery
