It's August! Now is the time to start slowly preparing your child for back to school. Regardless of whether it is their first year in Kindergarten or their last year of High School. As a parent of a child with special needs, here are some tips, tricks, and things I wish I had known early on.
Ease back into their school bedtime routine Summer tends to be when schedules and routines get thrown out the window. With school approaching, getting back into their regular school routine is vital for their success but it doesn't happen overnight. Start getting your child to bed 10-15 minutes earlier than they have during the summer to prepare for school. Increase in 10 to 15-minute intervals until bedtime is at the desired time.
Start waking up earlier! If your child needs to be up by 6:30 AM to get ready for school but has been sleeping until 9 AM all summer, start waking them up earlier in 10-minute intervals. No one wants to deal with a cranky and sleep-deprived kid. Starting this transition now will make those early mornings preparing for school much easier for you and your child. Take the time they need to wake up earlier to watch cartoons for the first few days. Then practice getting ready in the timeframe they need to use to get ready for school. Our family uses timers and 15, 10, and 5-minute warnings to help guide our kids to being on time for school or the bus.
Check when your child’s school has open house to meet their new teacher Open houses are a great opportunity to drop off school supplies to avoid heavy backpacks on the first day. In the hustle and bustle of the first week of school, the last thing I want to worry about is sending a bunch of school supplies in. Take the school's open house as a chance to ask for a picture of your child's teacher. We usually hang the pictures somewhere the kids can see them. We've found that this decreases their anxiety for that first day of school drop-off.
VISIT THE NURSES STATION!!!
This can be done during the open house and it is even better if the school nurse is there. Our family has previously been in situations where one of our kids has refused to go with the nurse to the nurse's station. They wouldn't let the nurse touch them to check their temp. When your kid is sick, it is not the time to introduce them to a new person and surroundings. If they are familiar with the nurse and the nurse's station, it'll make it easier for the nurse to help them.
Use social stories and books to prepare for school and for riding the school bus
This year we are reading, 'Twas the Night before Kindergarten' for one kid and using social stories for our other. Both kids love to read 'Time for School, Little Blue Truck'. Your local library or YouTube will be a great resource for back-to-school stories. There are tons of premade social stories online and on YouTube. These can prepare our kids for the upcoming school year and what it may bring.
This video is great for littles who are preparing for Preschool/Kindergarten
Tell teachers what sensory items your child might need and how they are used. Not everyone knows how all sensory items work or what will best suit your child. One of our children uses a chewy necklace, headphones, ankle weights, and a compression vest. While some teachers have experience with different sensory needs, they may feel nervous about using them. In our experience, most people don't seem comfortable with how tight a compression vest needs to be. They usually need assurance that it is what the child needs and explaining that while it may look uncomfortable to us, it helps our kid feel relaxed and ready to learn.
Visit your child’s school playground Take some time to play & explore. Most school playgrounds are open even during the summer. We take our kids to the school playground so they can feel comfortable enough to play during recess.
Create a back-to-school countdown
Our family uses a pack of sticky notes to create a countdown. Each day the kids get to take off the top sticky note to count down the days until school.
Practice at home using lunch boxes and opening packages For our kids' lunches, we use a bento box to eliminate the use of multiple packages. We can fit everything that they need for lunch in the bento box. They are easy to open and assure us that the kids can eat what they prefer while being kid-friendly to open. In preparation for school, I pack their lunches just as I would send them to school. We set a timer for 30 minutes and practice opening our lunches and eating all in that 30 minutes. We also practice what goes in the trash and what stays in our lunch box. Now the silverware comes home and trash makes it to the trashcan at school.
Lay out clothes in advance Weekly clothing organizers are your friend! We use a wall-hanging clothes organizer to plan the outfits for the week ahead to take the guesswork out of our mornings. Long gone are the days of searching the unfolded laundry for a matching pair of socks or the shirt that goes with that day's themed day. This has helped our family immensely and gave independence to our kids.
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