Returning to school after the holidays can be quite stressful for kids. Often, it also creates additional challenges for parents. Navigating this chaos and making things easier for both children and parents becomes simpler with a clear step-by-step plan. In the end, this back to school parents guide can serve as a roadmap to help organize everything without unnecessary difficulties.
How to Get Ready for Back to School?
The process of preparing your child for school can be roughly divided into several stages: emotional readiness, daily routine, and necessary shopping. By following these steps and using the tips provided in this back to school parents guide, your kiddo will head off to school happily, and for you, as parents, it will be less of a challenge than it might otherwise be.
Adapt the Study and Creative Space
Children outgrow not only their clothes but also their study space. At the age of 5–7, a small table and chair may be enough. As the young student grows, they need more room for their materials, a higher desk, and a chair that helps maintain correct posture during writing, reading, or drawing. That’s why, before the new school year, it’s worth using a few back to school tips for parents:
- Check if the desk and chair fit your child’s height. If necessary, adjust them or purchase new furniture.
- Add an extra shelf for books, notebooks, and other study materials.
- Make sure your child has good lighting – this will be essential if they do homework in the evening.
- Remove distractions from the room: unnecessary furniture, a TV, and so on.
All of this is a great way to get ready for back to school.
Get the Essentials Ready
Another annual mission for parents is updating the necessary items for the new school season. On social media, this has already turned into a trendy ritual, but don’t rush to copy everything from those beautiful videos. Your child doesn’t need an overwhelming number of things, so let’s keep it simple. Here are a few back to school tips for parents for this stage:
- Go through what’s left from last season. Sort through stationery and any extra items. Anything still in good condition and usable stays, for example, notebooks, markers, a lunchbox and thermos, even a backpack, which often just needs a good clean to look like new.
- Make a shopping list to buy only what’s necessary without overloading your child with extra items. Divide the list into product categories for convenience. For example: Stationery: notebooks, pencil case, drawing album, printer paper, modeling clay. Clothing: underwear, school uniform, socks, sports shoes, sportswear, indoor shoes, seasonal outdoor shoes. Additional items: water bottle, backpack.
- Involve your kiddo in the selection. Choose together the items that are missing. Let them pick things with their favorite characters or in their favorite colors (even if they’re not “on trend” or perfectly matching).
- Decide where each item will be stored: where to keep notebooks, where to put the backpack after school, where outerwear hangs, and so on. This will make morning searches for essentials easier and help maintain order in the home.
Each of these steps can be made enjoyable for your little student, helping them develop a positive attitude toward school and everything related to it. If you choose new things together, organize them together, and share the excitement, your child is much more likely to look forward to the first day with happy anticipation.
Gradually Adjust the Daily Routine
Once kids go on vacation, it’s natural to let them rest the way they like. The days are longer, so it’s no surprise they go to bed later and wake up later, too. It’s almost impossible to reset the sleep schedule without stress if you do it abruptly, so it’s best to start 2–3 weeks before school begins: have your child go to bed 10–15 minutes earlier each night, and wake them up slightly earlier in the morning. This way, by the end of the holidays, their sleep routine will be back to optimal.
Organize your parental schedule
During the holidays, parents’ schedules often shift as well, and they shift again when the school season starts. You’ll need to review your daily routine and see how to fit in school drop-offs, extracurricular activities, clubs, and other after-school events. It’s ideal if preparing your child for school can be shared between both parents. This way, each takes on part of the responsibilities, and it becomes much easier to handle everything together as a team.
Emotional Readiness
Now, it’s time to talk about the non-material aspects, particularly your child’s emotional preparation. When they go back to school, children often start to miss their classmates and dream of showing off all the new supplies they’ve received during the preparation process. If your child didn’t face any difficulties in the school environment the previous year, it’s much easier for them to emotionally adjust to the end of the holidays. In that case, it’s enough to simply talk about their expectations for the new school year and discuss any small concerns they might have.
But sometimes a child may strongly resist going back, even feel anxious or fearful. In such cases, it’s important to identify the cause in advance and work on resolving it. Perhaps the child experienced challenges with friends, classmates, teachers, studies, or even overload. It’s essential to address these issues so that the start of the school year doesn’t become a trigger.
If your child is going to school for the first time…
For first-graders, you can read books about school: wonderful stories that remove fears and help them imagine what it’s like to be a student. If possible, attend an open day, meet the teacher, walk through the school together, and show them around. This will help your little ones feel more confident and calm when the school year begins.
Daily Rituals Can Help
Some habits only need to be set up once, and then repeated every day. A familiar, predictable routine helps simplify daily processes, get things done faster and more efficiently, and understand exactly how much time or effort each task requires. So here are a few more valuable back to school tips for parents that will definitely help:
- Create morning and evening rituals. Together with your child, make a visual checklist: “make the bed,” “brush teeth,” “pack the backpack.” This helps back to school children become more organized.
- Manage after-school time. Don’t let homework take up all their free time. It’s important to maintain a balance between studying, playing, and resting.
- Plan meals. Think through the weekly menu in advance, and prepare quick breakfasts and lunches. This saves time in the morning and ensures your child eats healthy meals.
- Do things ahead of time. Anything that can be done in the evening should be – unpack the backpack from today, pack materials for tomorrow, prepare the next day’s clothes, check if the shoes are clean, and put the sports kit in the right bag. By doing these things ahead, you ease the morning rush. With fewer tasks to handle, you can even sleep five minutes longer and get ready without chaos.
To make things even easier, let your child participate in everything they’re ready for – both physically and emotionally. Let them pack their own backpack, choose their clothes for the next day, or help prepare their lunch. This builds a sense of confidence, independence, pride, and control over the situation – something every young student truly needs.
Make the End of the Holidays Enjoyable!
By late summer, it can feel like only hard work and studying lie ahead. That thought alone can be discouraging for лшві. So why not give them some extra motivation? Create a small celebration at the end of the holidays so that the start of the new semester feels exciting. During the celebration, plan other fun things your child can look forward to in autumn and winter. This shows them that the future holds not only school, classes, clubs, and homework, but also little and big joys. These could be family trips, planned treats, or special outings. With this mindset, returning to school will be easier because there’s still plenty of fun, joy, and excitement ahead.
Wrapping Up..
We hope this back to school parents guide will come in handy and help you prepare for all the changes ahead. Stay positive, and may the new school year bring only happy emotions to both your child and you.
