Return to classes from another path

The powerful Super Monday is approaching, which has positioned itself as one of the biggest concerns for Chilean families. It is not only one of the most feared and hated traffic days of the year, but also a set of inevitable emotions and feelings of returning to school, both for students and parents. Inevitably, it is not only the children and adolescents who return to school life in March, but their entire environment.

From the side of adults, we ask ourselves what we can do so that the experience of returning to school is a pleasure and not something that torments the students. After all, at some point we were in that position and we remember the anxiety of those days. We know that there are many invisible issues that can cause additional concerns for those who return to the classroom, but we must also recognize that there are many actions we can take to mitigate their effect on the mental health and mood of our family members.

Below, we present some back-to-school issues that are a little forgotten where your role as a caregiver is key to facing them:

1) Put a routine back together: sleep schedules, eating habits and essential habits.

After an extended period of rest, with a change in routines and key activities, it is not surprising that it becomes a challenge to resume the structure that we worked so hard to form previously. Sleep and eating schedules are essential for people's physical and mental health, especially during the growth stage. At this point we suggest you create a list of habits that you would like to modify, maintain or incorporate into your routine and that of your children. Identify items or activities that serve as a reminder to facilitate your goal. For example, putting on your pajamas is a reminder to brush your teeth, making it more difficult to forget. Relating part of our routines to habits that we want to incorporate will make it easier for us to remember those tasks. Talk about a common time to share a meal or activity, and that this serves to orient yourself temporally during the day and distribute activities easily. In addition, trying to establish a bedtime and being consistent with the activities that are scheduled will help get the school day off to a better start. For this, we invite you to choose a maximum schedule and communicate it clearly, considering that between 8-10 hours of sleep is recommended for this stage.

2) Facing the anxiety of responsibilities: organizational techniques and tools.

Returning to the classroom means having assignments, assessments, and responsibilities again. Many students feel anguish at not having planning or organization that allows them to have time for their activities or prioritize one over another. There are various methods to facilitate this task, so we recommend evaluating the various alternatives and trying (remember that it works differently for each person). Among the most used tools, we find agendas and planners. We recommend that you fill out and check them together with your children. Colors and textures can be very useful to categorize according to area, level of urgency, or other criteria. For older ages, you can incorporate techniques such as the Eisenhower matrix or GUT, establishing priorities before allocating time to each item. Accompanying boys and girls in their activities and in their organization reinforces their trust in their caregivers, provides validation, allows early learning of skills necessary for other stages of life and gives them a better quality of life that cannot be seen. overwhelmed by the difficulty of making their academic performance compatible with other fundamental areas of their lives such as sports, artistic activities, recreational activities, belonging to groups and collective spaces, among others.

3) Physical and mental changes: do not seek to avoid the inevitable.

If something characterizes the school stage, it is that it is a stage of rapid changes. With so many different concerns, we can forget that growth involves important physical and mental changes. Summer generally becomes a period of weight gain due to changes in diet, supervision, and food availability; Also added to the fact that a quarter of a year at this stage can mean important changes in sizes. Sometimes we cannot empathize enough with the process of accepting new bodies, and looking for clothes that fit it, so we forget that the search for uniforms can be complex. We must deal with a stock of sizes that does not match the needs of the students, and prepare to accompany and contain in case this becomes a challenge for them. During the summer, important changes can occur, such as the first menstruation, for example. Avoiding them will not solve their needs, so it is essential that we accompany these processes, understanding that they may be accompanied by different reactions and demands.

4) Make the journey pleasant: reinforcement of self-esteem and parental validation.

Returning to a room also means resuming and forming various relationships, and it happens that among so many people we forget that the one we have with ourselves is fundamental. What we hear, observe and perceive about ourselves has a profound impact, even if we do not realize it. Let us seek to recognize the achievements of boys and girls, as well as address failures to develop learning together, validating the various emotions that each side of the coin entails. Both are pillars of their self-esteem, which is projected in their interpersonal relationships. Let us be willing to listen to every detail they want to communicate to us, without judging or criticizing, but seeking to validate the emotions it triggers and also understand what is happening to decide how we can be present and act on it.

We are no longer in the school classrooms as students or with students, but those tools that we have given them are. Let us not waste the power to prevent certain behaviors, reduce some risks and facilitate the development of children and adolescents in educational establishments through actions and activities that we have at our disposal.

If you identify specific needs of your children, do not hesitate to approach people who are experts in the field who can provide you with the essential guidance to address the issues you have in mind. Remember that each boy and girl is different, and therefore so will their processes, needs, preferences and relationships.