Getting Ready for School!

“Do you know what else will be cool about first grade?”

“What?”

“You will be sitting at a desk of your own and not at a table with some friends.”

Declan’s eyes got big, “Oh yeah….”

“It is so cool that you have the same teacher, isn’t it?”

“Yes!”

“There will be some new friends.  Some will be the same and some will be new.  Isn’t that exciting?”

“Yeah.”

Getting Ready for School!

We are getting ready for back to school.  Declan’s first full day of school year.  And I am trying to get him ready – and pumped!

Declan left Kindergarten unhappily.  School was hard.  He didn’t like it.  Every day was a battle to go.

Over the summer he had the extended school year for Occupational Therapy (OT).  He cried every time he had to go.  And although he left his therapy sessions full of smiles, the dread of having to go was there for every session.

And it created this anxiety around him.  First grade was coming.  First grade was going to be long.  And it was going to be hard.

It was time to try to kick the “Anxiety About School” bug in the butt!

The ideas were overflowing on the internet.  Different feeds gave me different ideas – and I tailored our “What to do to get ready for school” list directly for Declan.  Here it is!

• I gently told him some of the new things to expect – in a VERY upbeat way.
• Next week, we go see his classroom.  He will get to see where he will be spending his days and he will get to see his teacher.  We were blessed that Declan’s kindergarten teacher moved to the first grade – so he knows what to expect from her as a teacher which is GREAT.  And she knows Declan – what his strengths are and where she can push him a little bit.  Also, she knows when to let him leave an area before a meltdown starts.  Just wonderful!
• For me, it is great to know his teacher already as well.  I have a relationship with her and I know I have someone I can talk to if I need to.
• Declan asked for a blank calendar of the month.  Each day he has been crossing a big “X” to mark another day closer to going to school.   Preparing himself for the first day of school with a visual.
• Let’s get back on track – sleep schedule!  Uggh, Declan struggles with sleep.  Being off a regular schedule only exacerbates the problem.  Now he fights going to bed AND on some days, he is still getting up in the wee hours of the morning.  But I will do my best the next week to wake him up on school time if he is to sleep in.
• Go over learned material.  I have tried pulling out the words he learned last year for him to read them to me – but I think the sight of his word ring brings back the reminder “school is hard.”  I get a flat palm up and a loud “NO!”  Books have helped bring the words back.  Being into sea creatures I got him a couple “I Can Read” Level 1 books on Orcas, his favorite.  So, some words are being reviewed
• The playground.  Where I feel he will face some of his biggest challenges.  He wants to make friends and play – all the things other children want to.  But he always has problems with his peers on the playground.  He only wants to play what he wants to play.  And if you don’t play the way he tells you to, he gets very upset.  Organized sports with rules – yikes.  So, I took him to play on the big first grade playground outside the school.

We played.  We have played there before  – A LOT – but this time I reminded him this is where he would play as a big first grader.  And I introduced him to something new we haven’t done before.

The Buddy Bench.  I love the Buddy Bench.  The bench is for children who do not have a buddy to play with.  They sit on the bench and wait for another child to see them and invite them to play.  They are now buddies.  This bench helped Catelyn A LOT through the years.

So, we talked about how if Declan is having a hard time finding a friend, to sit on the buddy bench, and a friend will find him.   And he practiced, listening while I explained it to him.

Then he asked me to be his buddy 😊

We are getting ready.

Ready for Declan to have a great time as a super duper big first grader! (Said in my super duper pumped up voice! 😊)