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First Day of School Anxiety:

It is understandable that many children have anxiety about their first day of school, especially that first day of their first year, and especially if they didn't go to daycare when they were younger. It is a hard thing for many children to face and deal with, and it can seem quite overwhelming. While it all depends on your child and how they react to change that will help determine how well your child will overcome this anxiety. In the meantime, though, there are a few things that can help your child face their fears and hopefully let go of them by the time the first day of school arrives:

• Let them pick out their new things when you go shopping. Take your new little student with you and let them pick out their own backpack, lunch box, pencils, folders, and everything else. The more they like their new stuff, the more they will be happy about going to school with it. This helps in two ways: they know that they are only getting these things specifically for school, and they like they idea of showing their new classmates all their cool new stuff. It can work the same with their new school clothes, too. Instead of just shopping for them yourself, take your child with you. Remind him that these are his new school clothes and don’t let him begin wearing them until the first day of school. By doing this, you are giving him something to look forward to on the first day, and this might help lessen some of the fear.

• Talk it up. This is one of the best ways to help ease your child's anxiety about school. Tell him how neat it is, and about how he will get to do fun crafts, and he will have recess where he gets to go outside and play, and how he will learn new cool things that he can come home and tell you about. Tell him about all the new friends he will meet and about how he will get to go to a bunch of birthday parties. You want to make it sound like he is getting a wonderful, exciting privilege added to his life by starting school.

• Try to prepare your child for what they can expect. One of the biggest motivators of fear is facing the unknown. If your child hasn't gone to daycare, they likely have no idea what school will be like, and this ignorance of what to expect can be a terrible thing for a 5 year old to have to face. Let your child know what they can expect. Explain how lunches will work, and tell her about raising hands, and all the little details involved with school. If your child has an older sibling or other relative, have them explain what it is like (be sure to let this child know not to tell about the bad parts, such as getting in trouble—your child will learn that information soon enough on their own). You can also buy books to read to your child about school. Some of these are specifically about kids who were afraid to go to school, but went and now they love it. There are also many others that are based in a school setting that can help inform your child.

• Let them know they are not alone. This is another reason many kids are scared of the idea of going to school—they are not only scared of going to school in general, they are also afraid that they will be the only kid in their class who is afraid. Let your child know that it is okay to be nervous, and that everyone is. If you can get your child to realize that all her classmates are nervous just like she is, it can help ease some of the anxiety.



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