Not only are our children transitioning from school year to summer, but they’re usually moving from a time of many hours of structured activities to many hours of free time–or at least much less structure.
There are ways to help minimize the stress of transitioning from the school year to summer break, though. These aren’t magical methods for removing all anxiety from the change, but they are ways to help make it easier!
1. Talk about it ahead of time
There’s no need to go in-depth or make a big deal out of it (which may actually heighten your child’s anxiety.) Instead, simply mention the kinds of changes that will be happening, and do your best to stay calm.
2. Choose some summer bucket list items to do.
These might include things like:
- building things
- art activities
- cooking or baking
- gardening
- playing games
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or some fun summer reading! Many younger children already love reading with parents or siblings. Even teens can enjoy reading with parents or with parents and teens from another family (sort of like a summer book club!)
If your child has a hard time verbally expressing what he or she wants to do, use pictures from magazines or printed from the internet to show some choices. Then go through the pictures together.
3. Talk about how much schoolwork you will do over the summer.
Let your child know about school work, therapy schedules, etc.
4. Keep as many routines as possible.
During the summer, we still got up, got dressed, brushed her teeth, washed her face, and got her dressed. Then we took some time to read together.
5. Plan some “down days” to help keep your children from being overwhelmed.
It’s important for children to have some “down days.” Try to resist the urge to cram every day full of places to go and things to do! For many children (and parents!) being too busy is overwhelming and can take the fun out of fun activities and make them stressful instead.
6. Create a visual calendar or visual schedule.
These are simply calendars with pictures instead of words so that they’re easier to understand for children who can’t yet read or don’t read well.
7. Try to get together with friends!
Have fun! Hang with friends and enjoy your time off of school practicing social skills.
8. Create a back-to-school countdown chart or calendar.
You might choose something easy like a calendar on which you mark off the days. Or you could do something fun like popsicle sticks in a jar. (Start with one stick for each day of summer break and remove one stick each day.)
Maybe you could make a paper chain with one link for each day of summer and simply cut off one link each day. If the countdown is something your child can participate in, it will be more fun and meaningful.
