As the school year begins, parents and carers with children just starting school for the first time, those who are transitioning to the next level of schooling or those who have young people who are entering “big” years of senior high school, all face 2019 with anticipation and a bit of trepidation.
These ideas for 2019 might assist you in this important time in the lives of your children, helping you and them start the school year off in a positive way with fewer dramas.
Maintaining the balance
Try to ensure that your child has at least one adult mentor at school who knows them well.
The key to any endurance event like a long race or a long school year is maintaining your stamina—finding the balance between social, emotional and intellectual health. For learners just starting school, establishing patterns of behaviour that reflect healthy balance is vital.
Getting proper sleep, eating good food and maintaining an exercise regimen are all as important to cognitive development as formal study. Sometimes summertime habits are more casual. Getting back into routines that support learning is crucial.
Sunday evenings are the key to the week. I recommend cooking food for Sunday family dinner with enough for leftovers saved for Monday night—forestalling the need for fast-food alternatives to start the week.
While the Sunday/Monday dinner is cooking, make the lunches for Monday. Having children choose, fix and pack their lunches can lead them to try healthier and different foods.
Turn the technology off
I recommend taking screen-based technology out of the bedroom before bedtime. Use an old-fashioned alarm clock, not the one on the mobile phone.
The visual stimuli of device screens just prior to bed creates a residual affect in the brain that disrupts deep sleep patterns.
Positive attitude
In spite of eating, exercising and resting well, the beginnings of the year can be anxious for some young people. Parent modeling of positive attitudes is crucial. This can be the best year ever. It actually will be, if we make it so. Life never is perfect. We know there will be challenges, but we will get through them together one day at a time.
For young learners the school year seems a very long time. Breaking it down to the day ahead creates manageable goals. All we really need to do is get ready for tomorrow and go do our best.
Finding passion for learning
Some student consternation is related to their not actually liking some parts of school. Many school routines are dull and boring.
This generation is used to stimulation and action in their home lives, while at school they are most often expected to sit and listen and follow a bunch of rules.
As your child adjusts to school, stay in touch with his/her teachers, meet with them to discuss how things are going, and engage your child in frequent conversations about their passion for learning and how it is being met.
More and more schools are embedding new approaches to teaching and learning that encourage students to enhance their critical thinking, problem solving, global savvy, indigenous knowledges and their collaborative abilities.
Embrace these as key skills for your child’s happiness, success and future careers.
Love and support
Don’t forget to tell your child every day how proud you are of them as a special, unique and gorgeous person.
Today’s society makes the journey for young people hard with expectations set through social media and television/film culture that personifies many stereotypes and risky behaviours.
Don’t be afraid to frankly discuss issues such as peer pressure, bullying and, with older children, sexual activity and alcohol/drug use.
Your child will appreciate your openness (even if they don’t express it) and knowing that you understand the challenges they are going through.
Try to ensure that your child has at least one adult mentor at school who knows them well.
Cherish the youth your child is going through. Be there for them. Talk to them constantly about how you love them and how you are there for them. And let’s make 2019 amazing.
- Professor John Fischetti is the University of Newcastle’s Interim Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Education and Arts