From tears to smiles!

Hi, it feels great to be back after a brief hiatus from the world of Tutelage. After all I too needed a break for my exams (oops! my kid’s  exams).Now that it’s  school time again, my mind is conjuring up images of tiny tots of nursery  stepping into a new strange world of a formal school for the first time- crying angels and believe it or not parents too! Well, it’s an exciting yet scary time for parents of these first timers. I would like to share some of the things which can be done to ensure that the transition from play school to a formal school is stress free.

§  Talk About It. Encourage your child to share his or her feelings. Talk about the excitement of starting at a new school,                    and discuss any concerns your child might have.Avoid making statements like in school Ma'am

                 will do this or that.

•   Take a School Tour. Call the school and arrange to tour the school with your child. Help your child find her way around the school and the location of her classroom and the washroom. If possible, meet the teacher and principal.

§  Make a New Friend. If possible, introduce your child to a classmate before the first day of school.

§  Go easy on the shopping: Instead of concentrating on buying the most stylish of school bags/stationary/lunch box/water bottle/…, concentrate on functionality and uniformity. After all you do want your child to concentrate on things like liking school, class room, making friends, learning to obey rules and most important- LEARNING.

§  A healthy easy to eat Tiffin. Whatever you give for Tiffin must be of the pick and bite kind and of course healthy too.For example there is nothing more healthy than chapatti and sabzi, but, for some kids  handling the two in a  tiffin box in classroom settings is difficult. So give it a twist by making individual foil wrapped chappati  veggie rolls. You can add some healthy thick spreads as a base on the rolls.

§  Try, Try, and Again Let your child  practice  eating  in the tiffin box at home.Teach her, to throw the waste -paper/other in the proper place(Bin).

§  Don’t worry, tears are totally normal. Your children are not  upset with you, and you’re not a ‘bad’ parent

        for walking  away.

I leave you with part of a poem written by  a parent going through the same phase .So it's Good-bye for now.

I wonder if you could possibly understand,

How hard it is for me to let you grow.

On this day know that my heart breaks,

For this is the first step in letting my baby go.