Preparing Your Child For Their First Day At School

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You’ve chosen schools after careful preparation – but how can we prepare our children for school? Starting school is a massive milestone for our children. It’s the first time that they really leave home and spend all day with their peers, exploring the world. It’s also different from nursery and pre-school, even if like mine they’re used to being away from home all day. The ratio of adults to children is less, so the adults can’t spend as much time with each child. It’s a fascinating time for them, but sometimes it can be challenging and involve a lot of tears.

So what can we as parents do to prepare their children for their first day at school? Let’s take a look.

Get Your Child Familiar With The Idea Of School

One good way to get your child interested in school is to read to them about it. There are lots of storybooks on the subject out there, including Starting School by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, as well as Lauren Child’s I am Too Absolutely Small for School, from the Charlie and Lola series. If your child responds well to stickers there’s a great one from Usborne books called Starting School with over 100 stickers. These books are an excellent way to positively engage with your child about what school will be like and gives them an opportunity to voice any concerns that they have.

Often, children can be put off school for things that parents wouldn’t think of. Sometimes it can be as simple as not knowing when or where they will get food, or how they will find their way home in the evenings. We can so easily get carried away with the excitement, and talk all the time to friends and family about how they’re going to go to ‘Big School,’ that the whole thing can start to feel frightening for them. Explain clearly what it is.

It’s also a good idea to get your child to talk to other children who have been to different types of schools, like army boarding school, private school, state primary schools and even home schooled children. Giving your child a range of accounts and experiences will help assuage their concerns, so long as older children don’t talk about their negative experiences.

School Uniform

Get some old uniforms from friends or charity shops in different colours and play dress up and role play. They can play teacher if they like – make it fun. There’s a play centre near me that has a school role play area, such a good idea. Practice hanging their coat and bag up together and sitting at the table.

Talk About Your Own Memories

Another way to help sell the idea of school to young children is to talk about your own experience. Talking about the friends you made and the exciting work that you did can be a great way to introduce them to the concept of learning and achievement. You can also talk about how your teacher helped you succeed in school and what you learned as a result. Liat Joshi, writing in the Huffington Post, says that parents should try to avoid talking about the years of bullying they endured or the fact that their teachers were petty and flew off the rails on a regular basis, to me that’s pretty obvious when you’re talking to a 4 year old.

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Help Them Live More Independently

When your child first goes to school, there will be lots of things that they will have to do for the first time on their own. This includes things like going to the toilet by themselves (and wiping themselves), putting on coats and zipping them up, and getting changed for physical education. Make sure the coat you buy has easy fastenings. Teaching these basic life skills is, therefore, important. My first child suffered because he couldn’t dress himself. Whichever coat you buy, make sure they can do it up and that it’s fastenings aren’t too fussy. Same with shoes, simple velcro fastenings are best. Even if they get their clothes on inside out and back to front, praise them for it. You can always tell when they’ve had PE because they come out with everything back to front and inside out!

It’s also important that children understand how to recognize their own name, especially if this is how the school marks belongings like lunchboxes or coat pegs. They usually add a picture too, so don’t worry too much if they struggle.

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Children also need to be able to eat independently once they reach school age and know how to use cutlery. Most schools expect children to have these skills before starting their first day at school. If they have a packed lunch, make sure they can open any packaging – there will be help available but it’s limited. They will also have to get used to eating at certain times, at a table with others and within a set time frame. Don’t give them too much.

They need to be able to carry a book bag and water bottle into class and they’ll be taught where to put it. Practice carrying a bag and water bottle so they get used to the feel of it.

Start Planning Child Care

Your child’s first few days at school are also likely to coincide with your first few months back at work after a long break to look after the kids. As a result, it’s worth thinking about practicalities, like child care, ahead of time. Good local breakfast and after school clubs and childminders get booked up months and sometimes years in advance, so make sure your place is reserved. Think about the cost implications too, and consider doing a child swap with a friend, so you have their child(ren) one day and she takes the other. Just a couple of trustworthy Mum friends can help no end, especially when the clubs and after school activities kick in.

Label everything, and I mean everything. That lovely uniform you’ll buy will get stained, lost and torn within weeks. Minimise the risk of it getting lost forever by labeling it all, either with an iron on or stick on label, or just get a permanent fabric pen and write directly on the label. Don’t forget shoes too, you can get special shoe stickers.

Buy the cheapest uniform you can get away with. I find George at Asda is cheap without compromising on quality. It’s heartbreaking when you fork out for the expensive stuff and it gets paint on it and the shoes are scuffed in the first week.

Enjoy this milestone with your child, and good luck!

Disclosure: this is a collaborative post, all opinions are my own. Contains affiliate links.

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