How to Handle Back to School Jitters

Tomorrow, 10-year-old Aoife Samuelson of Niantic will be making the jump from Niantic Center School to East Lyme Middle School. "It'll certainly be different," she said. But she's quick to add that she's not nervous. Not one bit. 

Her best friend already goes to East Lyme Middle School, she said, and she took a tour of the school, so she knows where she'll be going when the school bell rings.

"You got to meet all the teachers and tour the library," she said, adding that the new students will have escorts for the first few days at least. "So they’ll familiarize us with the school pretty fast," she said.

"Do you know where the bathrooms are?" her sister Fiona, 6, who will be going into first grade at Center School asked.

"Yes!" Aoife said.

It sounds like a funny question but for younger children, the idea of not knowing where the bathrooms are can be quite worrying. The question is so common, in fact, that Today Show contributor Ruth A. Peters dedicates at least three paragraphs to it in her advice to parents whose children are entering school for the first time.  

The most common tip for how to ease those first-day jitters for students entering any grade is to tour the school ahead of time. With this in mind, schools in East Lyme and in the Lyme-Old Lyme school district organized formal tours and events such as class picnics last week for students who will be starting a new school this year.

Many parents say they also make a point to visit the school before the end of vacation, even when their children are returning to the same school, just so that the first day doesn't come as quite such a shock to the system. 

Even if your child has never set foot in the school, however, it's unlikely that he or she is going in cold. Kids talk and so most will have heard stories about the school before they go there. But while hearing that a particular teacher is really nice can be a help, rumors that a teacher is strict or that a particular class is really difficult can have the opposite effect.

Experts suggest you encourage your children to keep an open mind and remind them that their experience might be quite different from that of their friends because they are, after all, different people.

Fiona said the thing she's most looking forward to is "making new friends." But for many students, particularly those going into middle and high school, the big fear is that they won't make friends or that they won't fit in for some reason.  

Try to be reassuring. Remind your children of their accomplishments, their talents, their attributes, and of the times when they were in similarly unfamiliar situations but went on to make friends and be successful.  

No matter how you cut it, after a summer of sleeping in that first morning is likely to be tough for everyone.

"The bus leaves for me at 7:45 a.m. I’m used to getting up at 10!" Aoife groaned.

Still, it won't take long for the early morning lunch-packing, bus-catching, and all that homework to become routine again.  

You'll find more tips at Scholastic.com, Parenthood.com, and Education.com.