Early Learning Kindercare

These tips are true for big kids and little kids. 👆👆SAVE this post and tag someone who could use this reminder.

Change is EXHAUSTING. New routines require a lot of mental energy. There are a lot of rules to learn and expectations in school, especially at the beginning of the year, and it can be an adjustment for kids, even if they love it.

Here are a few tips that I try and remember each year as I welcome my kids home after a day at school.

⭐️ Expect a meltdown. Some kids hold it all together all day at school and once they’re safe in your car they just release it all. Let them.

⭐️ Recess is so fun. Spending time with friends is awesome. Oftentimes kids skip their snack and eat minimal lunch at school because they want to CHAT or PLAY. This means they’re hungry when they come home to you! Sometimes we serve dinner at 3:30pm 🤣 and a second one at 5pm. Plan for it. Stave off any hangry kids with a snack and drink ASAP after school. If I’m picking kids up I will even bring it in the car with me! It’s amazing how food can just give kids a reset at the end of the day.

⭐️ Find a way to connect at some point each day. Whether it’s right after school or at bedtime, find some 1:1 time to check in, read together, or give a big hug and ask about their favorite part of the day.

⭐️ Make time to PLAY every day after school. It is so important- more important to me than getting homework done or going to sports practices or anything else.

What other tips do you have for parents to help make the after-school transition smooth? Share below 👇🏼👇🏼

I highly recommend that parents listen to the following podcast:

APR 25, 2024
Jonathan Haidt on the Great Rewiring of Childhood

Social Psychologist and NYU Professor Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness lays it out emphatically: kids are being very negatively affected by ubiquitous phone use. The research on what phones and their attendant apps are doing to our kids is devastating, and these spikes in depression, anxiety, and even self-harm correlate pretty exactly with the rise of internet-connected smartphone use. The good news is that the answer to possibly reversing this trend is simple, if not easy. In this urgent conversation, Haidt lays out exactly what parents need to know to help protect and prepare their kids as they navigate this complex technological era.

‎Next Question with Katie Couric on Apple Podcasts ‎Society & Culture · 2024