PREPARING YOUR CHILD FOR FULL-DAY SCHOOL

If you have a child preparing to enter first grade, you should expect a period of adjustment. Whether your child has been in day-care for years or has never been away from home for a full day, he will need to adjust to full-day school.

What kind of adjustments should you expect to see? Your first grader will probably be:

• Tired at the end of the day. It is hard work for a five or six year-old to work all day, to behave all day, even to be nice to his friends all day. Even those children who have previously been in day care all day will face this adjustment, because the afternoon nap they enjoyed in day care is eliminated in first grade. Don’t over-schedule your first grader at night; he will need some “down time.”
• Hungry at the end of the day. Lunch is often very early for the youngest in the school. To make it worse, first graders are often so excited and overwhelmed at eating in a big room with a hundred of their closest friends that they eat very little at lunch. Check if your school offers a snack time in the afternoon, and if so, pack a substantial snack. If not, prepare for a hungry child to arrive home after school.
• Reluctant to talk about school. Maybe it’s because they’re tired, maybe it’s because they enjoy having a world away from Mom and Dad, but first graders are notorious for being tight-lipped about their school day. The typical response to “What did you do today?” is “Nothing” or “I don’t remember.” Ask specific questions instead, like, “Whom did you play with at recess?” or “What book did you read in reading group today?”
• Sometimes reluctant to go to school. It is not unusual for a beginning first grader to decide he would rather just stay home today. (If only we adults had that option!) Remind him that school is where he needs to be, tell him you are proud of all his hard work, give him a hug, and send him on his way.

Most first graders work through this adjustment on their own (and with a little extra Tender Loving Care) within a few months. If by Halloween your child still seems to be struggling with adjustment issues, you should probably ask for a meeting with his teacher to discuss reasons why.

Even through the adjustment period, most first-graders love school and learning. But there are some things you can do over the summer to help smooth the adjustment. You should eliminate the afternoon nap to help your child’s body prepare for the fall schedule. And if he has school anxiety, ask to tour the school and meet the teacher with him ahead of time. It is often a good idea to wait to do this until the week before school. Doing the tour much earlier will prolong his anxiety and also may scare him, since most schools are not as warm looking in the summer before the classrooms are set up for the year.

And most importantly, talk positively about this new phase of his life. Tell him how proud you are of him. Assure him that he will not be missing anything exciting at home. And celebrate this milestone with your child.

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