The start of the school year can make kids (and parents) both excited and nervous.

To help children in elementary school get ready for the new school year, try the tips below. These suggestions are from The Greatest 8^TM, a mental wellness texting service for parents of children ages 0 to 8. The Greatest 8 is an initiative of the Washington County Coalition for Children, based in Rhode Island, and is available to parents across the country. It’s designed to help you give your kids a great emotional start in life.

By signing up for The Greatest 8, you’ll receive weekly age-appropriate texts based on your child’s month and year of birth. With BCBSRI’s support, The Greatest 8 is now also available in Spanish and other languages. You can sign up by texting greatest8 to (401) 297-3020 or visiting The Greatest 8 website.

Back-to-school tips from the Greatest 8

While these tips are specifically for children in elementary school, some will also be helpful for older children too.

1. Adapt your routines to support a smooth transition back to school.

• Start moving back toward a school-year bedtime. Adjust each day by 15 minutes until your child is back into a routine a few days before school starts.
• Start moving back toward a school-year wake-up time (see above).
• For even younger kids, start reducing the length of mid-day naps and, instead, opt for slightly earlier bedtimes.

2. Talk with your kids about going back to school a few weeks in advance.

• Ask what they’re looking forward to the most.
• Ask if there is anything that they’re feeling nervous about.
• Strategize about how to manage things that feel concerning—and acknowledge that sometimes the “unknown” can feel anxiety provoking … but also exciting. (What if the worst doesn’t happen … but the BEST happens?)

3. Involve your kids in the back-to school preparations below.

• Picking out their first day of school clothes/outfits
• Packing their backpack with their materials
• Letting them pick out any back-to-school supplies that they might need, such as pencils, erasers, and folders
• Decorating folders or binders or pencil holders with stickers or other personalized touches

4. Write an “all about me” letter (with your child) to their new teacher. Here are ideas for what to include.

• Things that they love about school
• Things that they love about home
• Something exciting that they did over the summer
• Something that they read recently
• Something that they’re really great at
• The names of pets, siblings, etc.
• Something important that they want their teacher to know about them

5. Do a practice run.

• Consider driving to/past the school a few times before the first day.
• Pull into the parking lot or drive through a “drop-off” location to show where they’ll go and what they’ll do. You can even have them practice hopping out of the car and running to touch the door of the building.
• Play on the playground!

6. Practice doing things independently.

• For younger kids, this might mean practicing opening lunch/snack containers, using bathroom stalls independently (how to lock and unlock doors), working through the anxiety that comes from loud-flushing toilets, and practicing zips/buttons/snaps on pants, coats, and backpacks.

7. Make a plan for getting on the bus.

• Taking the bus (for the first time ever or just for the first time of the year) can be anxiety-provoking. Talk to your kids about how they’re feeling and brainstorm some of the fun things that happen on the bus (extra time with their friends, sometimes the bus drivers put on the radio, playing games with your seatmate).
• Whatever plan you make regarding the bus, stick with it.  Having a clear routine and a structured morning schedule goes a huge distance to keeping kids moving in the morning.

8. Have your kids create a school day checklist.  

• Think through all of the things that they need to do at night before going to bed and in the morning when getting ready for school. You can help add to the list, but learning how to make (and follow) “to-do” lists can be really helpful as kids start to get a little older.
• Practice using the “to-do” list a few days ahead of school. Help your kids learn how to check off tasks that have been done and identify tasks that still need to be completed.

9. Make a plan for lunch.

• Talk with your kids about the foods they want to/will eat at school and the days when they will (or won’t) get lunch in the cafeteria instead of bringing it from home. Make a grocery list of lunch items to get before school starts.
• Go grocery shopping together and stock up on snacks and other healthy lunch options.
• Kids don’t have a lot of time to eat during the school day once they are in elementary school. Sometimes lunch is as short as 10 minutes, and rarely more than 20 minutes. Practice having your child sit down and focus on eating within 20 minutes.
• Talk about the importance of eating a good meal to keep their brains and bodies ready for learning throughout the day! Talk about some of the distractions (friends, noisy cafeterias) that might make it difficult to focus on eating.

10. Start practicing math facts and reading as the school year gets closer.

• Particularly for slightly older kids, the “summer slip” can be really hard to pull out of. Kids lose a lot of what they learn over the summer months. 
• Consider buying, printing, or creating worksheets that kids can use as school approaches to practice foundational skills like math facts and spelling. Make it fun by quizzing each other at the dinner table or while in the car.

Want more from the Greatest 8? Get tips and activities related to communication, understanding feelings, diversity awareness and respect, coping and resilience, and conflict resolution. Simply text greatest8 to (401) 297-3020 or sign up on The Greatest 8 website.