Small children go through a rough process when they go to school for the first time. They have many fears to deal with and might find comfort from siblings that started school the year before them. The smaller child might remember that their brother or sister had a lot of friends that they played with everyday and might coax the child into class by reminding the child of that fact.
The biggest fear that a small child has when they know that they must go to school is being separated from their parents and parents will have the same fears of separation even if they have several children in school and have gone through this separation process many times before. The parent might choose to ease that separation fear by giving the child a picture of them that they can carry to school and look at during the day.
Some of the back to school fears will have to be handled by the teacher. Some children feel lost when they sit at a desk in the back of the room. They feel alienated from the rest of the children because they are smaller than most of the students in the class. The teacher could calm those back to school fears quickly by doing a quick check on body size and moving the smaller students to the front of the class on the first couple of days after classes resume.
Some of the smaller children have fears that they will never be heard in such a large classroom. The teachers go through a lot of training and might know that some of the children will have softer voices than others in the class. They can alleviate the fear by explaining the rules of recognition and that the child can raise their hand if they have something to add and to stand up by the desk if they feel they are not being heard.
Some of the children will discover back to school fears at home. The student will learn the importance of getting to school on time each day but they know that at times, there is a possibility that somebody will oversleep. The child knows though that they have their own alarm clock that they can set each night when they are getting ready for bed, and as a backup the parents gave an alarm clock to each child in the house that had to get up for school on time.
Many parents know that quite a few of the back to school fears are unfounded. The child might have a reason for not liking school and the parent must do some in-depth investigating to find out what the problem is. The child might be fearful of being called names because they are chubby and after visiting class, they might find several children with the same problem. After they point that fact out to their children, the child might relax a bit and choose to group with those children on the playground and find new friends that they will have for years to come. |
