The Best Tips For School Success

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Kids will soon be going back to school. The start of a new school year can bring it’s own share of challenges. Check out the incredibly helpful tips I found.
It’s almost September. I’m feeling a little shell-shocked. How can it be September already? What happened to July and August? September heralds the beginning of new school year for those of us living in the Northern hemisphere.

September was always a bittersweet month for me. I felt relief  to see my my kids heading back to school, but I hated the quiet house and those regimented days.

Whatever your feelings the start of a new school year can bring it’s own share of challenges, so I went looking for some helpful posts.

“It is vital that when educating our children’s brains that we do not neglect to educate their hearts.” Dalai Lama

Education Simplicity and Peace

There is a lot of discussion about home schooling versus public schools right now. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages, so it can be hard to discern which way to go.

This article by Katie Fox about her family’s experiment with homeschooling really caught my attention. I appreciated Katie’s reminder that we all need to look for the way that brings simplicity and peace into our home.

Every family is different and our educational choices will reflect those differences.

“I wanted homeschooling to be the answer for our family – but it just wasn’t. At first, I was incredibly disappointed, even a bit grieved. But I was also relieved. I was relieved to simply admit that we had tried it, but it didn’t work out – and that’s okay. It really was okay. We weren’t failures. Homeschooling just wasn’t a good fit for us.

Read more at The Art of Simple

Helping Children Adjust to School

No matter how you are feeling about your children going back to school there’s one thing you can count on: Going back to school is a big transition for children.

I appreciated the wisdom in the article Ten Tips to Help Your Child Adjust to School by Dr. Laura Markham. These are simple suggestions to help you ease your child back into a school routine. Here’s my favorite

“Start your child’s day with a five minute snuggle in bed or on the couch, just bringing 100% of your attention to loving her. Make sure that every day after school when you’re reunited, you have special time with your big girl to hear all about her day. Make sure to schedule in a long snuggle after lights-out to increase her sense of security.”

Read more at Aha! Parenting

Help With Homework

A lot of children will be bringing home homework and this can be a source of stress for families. I went looking for some simple ideas to make homework time more manageable. This post is written by Rebecca who is a mother of four with plenty of experience.

“We all know how hectic after school time can be and getting kids to sit down and focus on their homework is a daily battle that we all have to face as parents. I’ve so been there! After nagging, reminding…. even forcing my kids to sit and get their homework done for too long, we started to make some changes that have helped our family.”

Read more at Simple As That

I also liked this post by Megan Tietz about supporting learning at home. I suspect that a lot of families do these things as a matter of course, so it might be an encouraging read for you.

“Many families do all that we can to foster and nurture learning in the earliest years of a child’s life, as well we should. But when our children begin spending their days in the classroom, we aren’t off the hook! Continuing to build a home where learning is nurtured and valued is one of the best ways we can equip our children for life after graduation.”

Read more at the Art of Simple

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Finally I couldn’t resist including this TED Talk, given by Sir Ken Robinson, which makes a case for creating an education system that nurtures — rather than stifles — creativity. It is a thought provoking video and well worth watching.

“Kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go…. They’re not frightened of being wrong. I don’t mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original …. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this. We stigmatize mistakes. And we’re now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.”

I hope you will find some helpful wisdom from the links I have posted today. Have you found any back to school posts that have been helpful? Leave a comment below.