7 emotional tips for a warm back-to-school season

Tips to make it easy for the little ones during the back-to-school days.

These days the countdown for many children.

The emotions flow in different currents, sailing between the happiness to see friends again, the laziness to resume early mornings and the sadness to leave behind a few days of enjoyment and rest next to the family.

How to promote a warm back to school?

For many children, going back to school is not always easy.For this reason, we leave you below a series of recommendations that can help us to help our sons and daughters to adapt.

For families...

These are the key tips and ideas for parents to keep in mind to make it easy for the little ones.

1. Connection

Talking with them about how they feel at the beginning of the school year (we can use drawings, games, songs), calming their discomfort in case there is fear, anger or anxiety, without minimizing or downplaying its importance, and helping them to integrate that emotion through the adult's transmission of understanding and security.and helping them to integrate this emotion through the adult's transmission of understanding and security.

2. Anticipation

Visit the school days before the beginning, try to promote a previous meeting in the park with children who are going to belong to their class.Explaining through dolls or images, or making an imaginary trip to the school, can help to give the children confidence at the beginning.

3. Cooperation

So that our children feel that they are taken into account, that their opinion and collaboration is important to us. involve them in the preparation of school supplies, accompanying us when shopping and, whenever possible, making choices based on their tastes.. This will strengthen the creation of a positive expectation towards the return to school.

4. Accompanying with serenity and calmness

Avoid rushing and anxiety on the part of parents when going to school, being aware of the present moment and being by our children's side, listening to what they tell us or helping to put words to what they are experiencing, always being aware that we are transmitting security.always being aware that we are transmitting security and not "I have to go". This moment is very important, so that our children's first steps towards school are taken with aplomb and serenity.

For teachers...

Teachers can also help with many actions to welcome their students with and from the heart, promoting pleasant and positive emotions about the reunion. To this end, our suggestions are as follows.

1. Preliminary communication

Any contact with the students, a few days before starting, which is emotionally charged, transmitting welcome and security, can help children to come to class more confident..

A video call, email or, for example, the idea that my daughter's teacher, Bakarne Robles, had, with this postcard at home, full of affection and images, can fill children with illusion and positive expectations.

2. Create bridges between home and school

Start with an activity that provides continuity between home and school.The transition can be made smoother by bringing a vacation photo (example you can see in the previous postcard), or an object that reminds us of where we have been (shells, sand, stones, books, etc.).

Also, offering families the possibility of prior communication, in case they feel the need to transmit some relevant information, will always help to better contextualize each student.

3. Emptying the backpack of emotions

As teachers, mental and emotional states are also activated in us at the beginning of the course. Becoming aware of this will help us to better collect the emotions that students bring with them.As Jose Maria Toro says, "good education is all about creating bonds and untying knots".

All this can be achieved by implementing an affective communication, and transmitting an emotional state (tone of voice, gestures, speech rhythm), denoting commitment and understanding, to envelop the students in an aura of security.

In short, going back to school is not only about getting students into class, but also about making them want to stay and come back the next day.

Author: Anabel De La Cruz Sánchez, Psychologist at Vitaliza.