Like many parents, you may be wondering how to make sure your child is both academically and emotionally ready to go back to school this fall, and what you can do to support them as they return to learning.
Back-to-school preparation can seem daunting, but don’t worry – you’re in the right place, and you’re more prepared than you think you are.
“Parents know their children much better than anyone else,” says TakeLessons Partner and math teacher, Julie Lopez, “Compared to even the most decorated educator with masters and doctorate degrees, a loving parent is still the best and most influential teacher for their child.”
While the upcoming school year may seem filled with big changes, and the past year may have been packed with challenges, it’s important to remember that, as a parent, you have the power to create a positive narrative around your child’s upcoming learning experiences. You, as a parent, can ensure the relationship your child has with their education is impactful, rewarding, and growth-filled. Let’s get started with our guide to back-to-school preparation for parents!
Why is Back-to-School Season So Stressful for Parents?
Parents often experience stress surrounding the back-to-school season, usually due to the following:
- Increased financial pressures, such as purchasing new school supplies.
- Planning and logistics, such as organizing transportation.
- Prepping kids for the academic expectations of a new grade level.
- Balancing work and home responsibilities.
- Ensuring kids have a smooth adjustment to a new school year.
As a parent, one of the best tips we have for how to prepare for going back to school is to not attempt to do everything yourself. We’ll give you some tips for preparing for back to school in this post, but know that outsourcing a few things here and there doesn’t make you a bad parent – it makes you an organized parent!
Another tip is to consider signing your child up for tutoring with TakeLessons. Our tutors will be able to help with everything from academic subjects like math and English to basic study skills and organization. Check out some of the top benefits of tutoring below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xriz4DpEVHI
How Can Parents Prepare for Back-to-School Success?
If you’re a parent getting ready to send your child back to school, no doubt the process is quite daunting. From knowing how to mentally prepare for back to school to dealing with the logistics (such as finding childcare after school while you’re still at work!) it can be downright exhausting.
Here is our back-to-school preparation checklist:
Set a Routine Early
It’s not just children who need a routine. Parents can benefit from having a regular schedule in place, too. Before school starts, get yourself and your family back into a regular sleep and mealtime routine.
Have a set bedtime and wake-up time that you will stick to, and plan to eat your meals at the same time each day. This way, when the first day of school rolls around, it won’t be so stressful for everyone to get back into a routine.
Get the Right School Supplies
One of the most important elements when it comes to how to prepare to go back to school is getting the right gear.
Review the school supply list provided by the school and purchase the necessary items for your child. While it might be fun to stock up on colorful supplies, stick to the basics that your child needs for the upcoming school year. You don’t want to overspend and end up with items that won’t be necessary or ones that can be provided by the school.
Shop for New Clothes in Advance
Avoid last-minute shopping trips by planning to buy new clothes for your child a few weeks before school starts. Be sure to check with the school for the dress code requirements before making any purchases. It’s also a good idea to involve your child in the process and have them choose clothes they like and feel comfortable in.
Update Medical Records
Don’t forget to update your child’s medical records. This includes the required vaccinations, physical exams, and necessary paperwork for any medical conditions. Make sure you have a current copy of your child’s health insurance card and emergency contact information on file with the school.
Communicate with the School
It’s important to keep the lines of communication open with your child’s school. Attend back-to-school orientation, read the school handbook, and reach out to your child’s teacher. Make sure you understand the expectations, rules, and procedures at the school. Knowing what is expected and required of your child can give them peace of mind and reduce any anxiety they might have.
How Can Mindset Help With Back-to-School Preparation for Students?
A big part of back-to-school preparation is mindset. That’s because the emotional relationship children have towards learning counts for a lot. As a parent, you have some power to influence the narrative of your child’s education; you can help shape your child’s relationship with learning, and, subsequently, transform their performance as a student.
Research shows a direct connection between a student’s mindset and academic success. In 2019, researches conducted a national experiment that sought to reveal whether having a growth mindset can improve achievement. The results, which were published in the science journal Nature, showed the positive impact of “leading students to see intellectual abilities not as fixed but as capable of growth in response to dedicated effort.”
Can a Growth Mindset Help My Child’s Academic Performance?
Developing a growth mindset could be an important part of how to prepare for back to school. Growth mindset researcher Carol Dweck points out that “Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset.”
One study followed a nationally representative sample of 12,000 ninth-grade students from 65 US schools as they made the transition to high school. One set of those children participated in a 45-minute online intervention session designed to counter the belief that intelligence is fixed and that effort or mistakes indicate lack of ability. The control group did not engage in this online session.
Students who received the intervention reported a reduction in fixed mindset beliefs compared with those in the control group. This was also accompanied by an increase in GPA for lower achieving students and an increase in advanced math course enrollment in the following year across achievement levels.
Teachers’ mindsets count for a lot, too. In another longitudinal study of 150 STEM professors and their 15,000 students, researchers found that classrooms led by professors who believe ability is a fixed attribute had racial achievement gaps up to twice as large as courses taught by faculty with a growth mindset.
How Can You Help Your Child Develop a Growth Mindset?
So, how can you help your child develop a growth mindset, and how can this help with back-to-school preparation?
“The best way to help your child to gain confidence is to be their cheerleader,” says TakeLessons partner and public school math teacher Mary Lou Hoffman. “Don’t be false, but when they accomplish a goal – any goal, no matter how small – cheer them on to reach the next goal.”
Here are a few other helpful tips:
1. Change the Narrative
As a parent, you have an opportunity to change the narrative around your child’s relationship with learning, which can be a huge part of tackling how to get ready for school to start after a year of disrupted learning. Start by telling your child that “brains can get stronger.” Begin using the word “yet” when your child says they can’t do something. Remind them that instead of saying “I can’t do that” they can add a “yet” – as in, “I can’t do that yet”.
2. Demonstrate a Growth Mindset
Parents are some of the most important role models for young learners. One of the ways to nurture your child’s growth mindset is to demonstrate it yourself. Say, “I’ve decided to learn a new language. Even though I don’t speak it yet, I know that by working hard I’ll be able to gain fluency.” Or when you speak about work, say “Today I had a challenging situation come up, but I knew it was an opportunity to try a new way of solving a problem.”
3. Effort Over Results
Notice when your child works hard and is persistent, and call out those moments for your child. Say, “I can tell how hard you’ve been working, and I can see your progress. Well done!” And, instead of waiting to observe your child’s end result on a project or test, call out the moments when they’re focused on the process. Whatever grade your child is in, the effort they put into an assignment or project should always be celebrated.
4. Embrace Challenge
In a growth mindset, challenges are merely chances to grow. Remind your child that challenges are exciting, and nurture their ability to engage in creative problem solving. When your child is stuck on a school project or homework assignment, ask questions like, “What are some different ways we can solve this problem?” and “What ideas do you have?” In addition, cheer your child on when you see them digging into a challenging situation, or using a creative solution to solve a problem.
5. Celebrate Failure As Opportunity
Giving kids permission to fail will open up their willingness to take risks, and will take some of the anxiety out of trying to succeed. The ability to embrace failures simply as opportunities for growth is a valuable skill your child will likely keep with them as they work through high school, college, and into adulthood. And it’s an important part of back-to-school preparation this fall.
6. Growth Mindset Activities to Prepare Kids for Back to School
Reading books about growth mindset is a great way to start a conversation with your child. There are excellent children’s books about growth mindset that are both fun and educational. Choose a book that your child can relate to and engage with. After reading, ask your child what they learned and how they can apply it to their lives.
Goal-setting is another essential skill that can help your child develop a growth mindset. Encourage your child to set achievable goals and help them develop a plan to achieve those goals. Celebrate their successes along the way and help them learn from their setbacks. Teach them that it’s not about the destination but the journey.
Finally, encourage your child to try new things, be it a new sport or hobby. Trying new things helps your child to embrace challenges, learn from their mistakes, and celebrate their success. You can enroll them in a class or a workshop where they can explore their interests. Talk to your child about the lessons they learned and the skills they developed from the new experience.
Most importantly, be there for your child. “When parents pay attention to their children and learn things together with their children, their relationship gets stronger, which builds the child’s confidence,” says Lopez. “Talking to your child is very important, but listening to your child is the most important.”
Should I Consider Online Learning for My Child?
Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is mostly in our rearview mirror, just about every school is back to in-person learning. Yet many parents engaged in back-to-school preparation are wondering if online learning is still a smart option. The question still remains: can children learn as much online as they can in person? And is it something you should consider as part of your back-to-school preparation checklist?
Pros and Caveats to Online Learning
In a global survey by McKinsey & Company, findings showed that students at the best full-time virtual schools can do as well as or better than those at traditional ones, but that online learning is not necessarily right for every student in every situation.
Resources available to students and teachers make a huge difference in the quality of education received, according to McKinsey & Company, with teachers who taught at public schools giving remote learning an average global score of 4.8, and their peers in private schools – which often have more funds and resources – an average rating of 6.2. Teachers working in high-poverty schools found virtual classes to be especially challenging and ineffective, rating them 3.5 out of 10.
Research regarding online learning and teaching shows that they are effective only if students have consistent access to the internet and computers, and if teachers have received targeted training and support for online instruction, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
For some children, learning online is an exciting and rewarding way to learn. “Some children actually liked virtual learning [during the pandemic] and wished they could continue to stay home,” says Hoffman. For others, it might be challenging to stay engaged using an online curriculum.
Not all online and in-person learning environments are the same, and when making the decision between these two learning formats, it’s important to determine the best quality education option available to you and your family.
Additionally, no two learners are alike, and that means the path you choose as a parent will be influenced not only by the resources available, but also by the method by which your child learns best. Data shows more positive correlations between in-person classrooms and student performance, but with the right support in place, it’s possible for children to perform on par or better through a virtual learning environment.
Should I Get a Tutor for My Child?
“Tutors can provide the kind of one-on-one academic support and encouragement that children need to thrive as learners,” says Steven Cox, CEO and founder of TakeLessons. “Tutors can help students gain confidence, overcome roadblocks and challenges, and discover a love of learning that will stay with them for a lifetime.”
Having a tutor address your child’s challenging areas and bring out their strengths will help your child discover ways they can thrive that they didn’t know were possible. “The learning in a tutoring session goes at the student’s pace, not the pace of a group lesson, which can sometimes be either too fast or too slow for the individual,” says Lopez, “Also, in a tutoring session it is difficult for the student to ‘fall through the cracks’ or disengage.”
Tutors are able to provide academic guidance for your child while also playing a role in boosting their confidence and emotional relationship to learning.
“A child will often relax around another person more than their own parent,” says Hoffman. “I know that if I build a bond with that child and then bring the parent back into the games that help them to learn, I’ve helped to build a winning team that will make that family grow for the remaining school years.”
Paid tutoring services have become more accessible with the growth of online learning resources in recent years, and free tutoring services can be a valuable resource for learners of all ages as well. That’s why TakeLessons has structured both private tutoring sessions in-person and online, and free tutorials to help young people thrive. Both can be a helpful element in back-to-school preparation.
Private, Paid Tutoring
Successful tutoring often involves a private tutor who customizes sessions to your child’s needs; empowering them to overcome challenges and gain confidence in their academic abilities. Great tutors align sessions that support your child’s school curriculum while addressing their unique strengths and weaknesses, so that they grow holistically throughout the school year.
Free Tutoring Resources
Luckily, the days of overpriced tutoring services reserved only for high-earning families are behind us, and there are myriad resources available for families without the means to hire the private tutors. The TakeLessons YouTube channel is designed for all young learners with tutoring videos that cover topics in math, reading, sciences, and the arts.
When it Comes to Back-to-School Preparation, We’re In This Together
However you’re tackling back-to-school preparation, we’re all in this together as teachers, parents, and lifelong learners.
At TakeLessons, we’re always looking for new ways to support students along their path to success. Share your experiences with us by commenting below, find a one-on-one tutor for your child in our database of expert educators, or join us for joyful group tutoring sessions that will help your young learner thrive this year. Here’s to a year of helping your child reach their full potential!
Phina Pipia