The hot happy days of summer are over and as children come out of their holiday torpor, they have to be helped in making a smooth transition from lazy seamless days to a more disciplined structured existence.
Parents have a vital role to play in effecting this transition. The shift should start a few days before school begins with an early wake-up call. A talk with the children on a time table that is both realistic and doable is very important as it helps students to plan their studies better and manage their time more efficiently. This is an essential tool to ensure that as school progresses, the student will be able to meet home work deadlines, take care of assignment submissions and project presentations with greater ease. Planning a schedule together, so that time is used efficiently for studies with enough left over to pursue other interests, is necessary for the work life balance that every person needs to achieve.
Very often I have noticed that students find it difficult to shake off their lethargy after the holidays because they have not been helped to make this transition early nor have they been taught to make a time table for themselves that will help in ensuring they have time to relax too.
The week before the school day should also be spent in checking if the uniforms are ready and books, both text and notes, have been bought as per the requirements. Holiday homework should be completed and made ready for submission or presentation.
In case the child is joining a new school, both parents and child should familiarise themselves with the rules and regulations and philosophy of the school. An early visit to the school premises and a talk with existing students will ease the student’s shift to a new atmosphere.
This adherence to a plan prior to school is often ignored as families rush back after holidays not knowing how to begin the school year with any semblance of ease and relaxation. It is a flurried activity from day one for parents and students.
All that is required is planning as today most students have a school calendar that includes running for extra activities, tuition and tests and exams. It is impossible to achieve any degree of excellence unless it is meticulously planned by both student and parents together. It has to be flexible, imaginative and not unrealistically demanding and impossible. The idea of being school ready after a relaxed holiday is to enable the student to ease himself or herself into a more rigid framework with ease. This regime at home has to be framed for all children irrespective of the class they are in. It can be done in a fun way with colourful charts for youngsters and discussed and implemented in a different way with older children.There can be no one style fitting all in this plan but a plan there has to be.
The child has to be prepared mentally, physically and emotionally for an active and challenging school life and that can happen only with a parent-child team working in tandem.
(The author is director, Tattwa Centre of Learning, Kochi).
