Dressed in their new uniforms, countless little learners excitedly reported for their first day of school this week. Dr Stef Esterhuizen from the North-West University (NWU) recently shared advice in the national media for those most traumatised by this big change: mom and dad!

She offers the following tips to remedy the anxiety associated with the first few weeks of school:

• Maintain a positive attitude towards the school and its staff. This way the child will understand that school is a positive place and this will create a feeling of security.
• Much like charity, education also starts at home. Teach your child attributes such as respect, accepting authority and discipline at home.
• Maintaining a routine will provide the child with a sense of security.
• Ensure that he/she has everything that is needed, including stationary and school clothes. Be sure to mark everything clearly.
• Limit time on electronic devices on school nights in order to prevent overstimulation which may inhibit sleep. Have your child help put out his/her school clothes and decide on lunchbox content for the next day.
• The lunchbox is an extension of the love and support from home. Make sure your child can feel it when opening his/her lunchbox at break time.
• Wake your child in time. Try to create a calm atmosphere at home in the morning – this calmness will accompany him/her to school. Rushing around in the morning will lead to an anxious child.
• Make sure you are on time when picking your child up in the afternoon and that the child is sure of the exact place that he/she will be picked up.
• Create a school corner at home with a table, chair and shelf with school books and stationary. Homework shouldn’t lead to fighting. A grade one learner should not be busy with homework for more than 30 minutes. The rest of the afternoon must be spent playing, preferably outside, where large muscle development can properly take place. 
• Make time as a family to talk about everyone’s day in the evening.
• Ensure that the child is not kept out of school for no reason. That being said, don’t send a child who is ill, to school.

Dr Esterhuizen is a senior lecturer in the School of Psycho-Social Education at the NWU’s campus in Vanderbijlpark.