A timely post from Michael Grose's Parenting Ideas page. I appreciate his core messages of being involved and interested in your child's education, without taking over; maintain open communication with and trust the teacher and the school.
It is a little sad, however, to think that parents may need to be reminded to make sure that their kids eat healthily, get plenty of sleep and arrive at school on time - this was also a key message on the first note home I received from my son's grade one teacher. This must be a pretty serious problem if teachers are having to remind parents of something that is so commonsense. What advice would you give to parents with children starting school?
Parenting Ideas - Help your child ACHIEVE this year
We had a similar spiel in our first newsletter home. I think to most parents it's commonsense to feed our children healthy food and to make sure they get the necessary sleep to function well during the day - perhaps a bit stockpiled on advance for the first week! - but I guess, sadly, there are "those" parents who are a bit more, ah, relaxed about these things. My advice for surviving the first week would be to scale any after-school activities to a bare minimum as they are going to be VERY tired. And don't make too much of a big deal about them going to "big school". While it's great to prepare them in advance and have them excited about it, it can also place some silent pressure on them and make them feel very overwhelmed at the same time. And my personal advice is to make sure you have plenty of petrol in the car on their first day! We arrived to class just as the bell rang due to having to make a detour for fuel. Needless to say we were all a bit harried and stressed and I got a ticking off by my grade-oner! :)
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