Our top tips for starting school

Our Top Tips for Starting School

Is your child starting school next year? Are you wondering what you can start doing now to support their school transition? Here are our top tips to help your child be more independent as they start school.

1. Getting ready in the morning: If your child is unable to dress themselves independently, start practicing this now. This includes small buttons, zippers and laces if your child has them. Support your child now to pack their school bag, including remembering all the items they need to take (hat, drink bottle, lunchbox etc). Use visuals if this is helpful for your child. You’ll be so grateful next year when this saves you time, and they will feel good about it too (at least for a while!!).
2. Recognising belongings: while labelling is important, having your child visually recognise their belongings will make it much easier for them to identify and use their belongings.
3. Accessing food: as parents we regularly absentmindedly open packets or that yoghurt pouch, so if you haven’t already, start making sure your child can do it themselves. Practice peeling mandarins (also great for fine motor skills!) and opening and closing zip lock bags if you plan to use them.
4. Going to the toilet: if you are currently supporting any step of going to the toilet, think about how you can develop that skill by the time they start school. If your child currently needs a reminder to wash their hands or flush the toilet, rather than asking your child to ‘wash your hands!’ try prompting them, ‘what do you need to do next?’ slowing reducing the prompt until you don’t need to prompt at all. If you are supporting your child with wiping their bottom, check out this great article with some fun ideas to develop this skill.
5. Pencil grasp: while there are lots of functional ways to hold a pencil, at this early stage aiming for a dynamic tripod grasp is a good idea. If you see your child holding the pencil awkwardly, prompt and support them to use their pinching fingers on the pencil. Use a short, thick pencil. Bath crayons can be fun. Play with small items like pop beads and lego and prompt them to feel the muscles in their pinching fingers as they push and pull things together.
6. Drawing skills: representing real life things on paper is a great visual motor skill. Have your child practice shapes and simple pictures. Challenge them to think about what they can see and how to represent it on paper. If they are reluctant, try drawing parts of a picture with them and having them add the detail, slowly doing less of the drawing as their confidence improves.
7. Social: organise some play dates with children who will be attending the same school. Having some familiar faces will be comforting in those first few weeks!
8. Early numeracy: play board games that involve numbers or try singing songs with counting (5 little ducks). Play around with recognising, creating, identifying, copying and continuing patterns in everyday life. For example, play clapping games where you clap a pattern and your child repeats the pattern, or setting up toys or figurines in a pattern.
9. Exposure: make sure you attend orientation and visit the school as much as possible. If your school has a social story, get a copy and read it. Look up photographs of the school online and talk about different things in the school. Make a school map! We love this story from NSW Department of Education called Daisy’s first day. Read it with your child!
10. Talk with your child: check in with them now about how they are feeling. Validate any feelings they have. Tell them that they can talk to you about anything they are feeling. Draw a picture with them about what it might look like to start school. Keep the conversation going all the way until the first day (and beyond!).

If you’d like more advice or thoughts, come along to our screening sessions or school readiness groups in January. We wish you all the best with your child starting school!