After staying home for two months, children will be making their way back to school in early June.
While returning to school is usually an exciting experience for young children who are looking forward to seeing their schoolmates again, the prolonged period of staying at home may make this process a little more challenging than usual – especially as your child may have been following different daily routines at home, with varying meal and nap times).
Don’t worry, we’re here to help with five adjustments that you can implement in the coming week to smoothly transition your child back to preschool life and habits.
Tip 1: Re-adjust your child’s schedule
My First Skool’s curriculum begins at 9am, so your child needs to reach school before that. If they’ve been sleeping late, now’s the time to send them to bed earlier, and have them wake up earlier. Their mealtimes need to be scheduled according to fit their school timetable too (which you can access from your parent portal app).
Finally, naptimes are a common feature of preschools in Singapore. At My First Skool, we value naptimes as they provide children with much-needed rest, which supports their physical and mental development. Check your child’s timetable to see when naptimes are scheduled, and encourage your child to rest or sleep during those times.
By adjusting your child’s schedule to more closely match their school’s timetable, you are helping them adapt to returning to school quickly and easily – which will greatly aid in their development.
Tip 2: Adapt to new safety measures
Upon reopening, your child’s school is likely to implement new safety measures to keep children safe. At My First Skool, our staff, teachers and children will be washing their hands more frequently and masks will be worn at all times in our preschools.
Speak to your child about social distancing, and how they may not be able to play or eat with their classmates in the same way for a little while. Explain why masks are important and get them excited about using one, by getting them a mask they like, or by decorating the one they have at home with buttons or stickers. Having a unique-looking mask also prevents any potential mask mix ups from happening at school.
Tip 3: Encourage your child to reconnect with friends virtually
Social interaction is a big part of your child’s school life, and their development. To get them accustomed to the new way of interacting with friends, you can arrange virtual play dates over the coming week for them to say hi to teachers and friends.
Seeing and chatting with their friends and classmates again, can help them to not only reduce anxiety about going back to school, but also get them excited about meeting their friends again, even though they have to practice social distancing.
Tip 4: Start talking about school
Normalise the subject of “school” by making it a topic of casual conversation while at home. Assure your child that everything will be good, tell them about the fun they’ll have with friends, and remind them of all the good times they’ll have at school. Reassure them that although there might be new measures, life in school will still be fun and they can continue their learning.
Take their school uniform out of the cupboard and get them used to wearing it around the home over the next week.
For younger children, like infants, show them pictures of themselves in school, interacting with their educarers and talk to them about it.
You can also get them accustomed to school by taking a virtual tour of your child’s classroom together. Guide them through the different areas, injecting fun and anticipation into your conversations.
Tip 5: Pack your child’s school bag with them
You can also start packing your child’s school bag with them, so they get used to doing so again. While packing their water bottle, clothes, books and diapers (if needed), you can remind them of when they’ll need each of these items. For example, “We’re packing clothes so you can change after your afternoon shower, and your book is for lesson time.”
Making a smooth, fuss-free return to school
As we transition into phase one of Singapore’s safe reopening, this is the ideal time to prepare your child for a smooth return to preschool – so you (and the rest of the family) can transition to work and normalcy too.
For more resources on helping your child to cope with the current circuit breaker, visit our resources section.
As one of the top preschools in Singapore, we lead the industry in terms of health and safety practices. To ensure a safe and healthy environment for our children to return back to preschool after circuit breaker, we’ve installed commercial grade UV sanitisers to sanitise children’s toys and kitchen equipment so that you can have a peace of mind. Register your interest with us today!
