Tips for parents about going back to school

The first days of school, the post-holiday syndrome, the expenses of going back to school, the choice of extracurricular activities or the uniform are just some of the aspects that we have to face parents when children start the school year. The psychologist Elvira Sánchez-Igual, Director of Communication of AMEI (World Association of Early Childhood Educators nos) offers us some good advice to successfully face the return to school.Tips for the first days of school of the child

Does the post-holiday syndrome also affect children?

Post-holiday syndrome affects children as well as adults. After the holidays, the adults are more irritable, it is harder for us to get up early and we are in a worse mood because it is difficult for us to readjust our routines. The same thing happens to children. During the first days, the children will have more sleep, they will be more tired and irritable because before they spent all morning playing with their toys and now they have to be all morning at the school.
What signs can tell us that children are suffering from this syndrome after the holidays?

Really, what will give us the clue that the child is not well is that he will be more irritable, because he can no longer do what he wants at all times and will have more sleep because he will be more tired. Probably, it also manifests through appetite, will eat a little worse as a sign of rebellion, of not being comfortable with the situation and can demonstrate it with tantrums and tantrums. Some children may even pee when they did not before.
In times of crisis, what advice would you give to parents to save money on going back to school?
The return to school always involves a very important cost for families. We recommend, since we know that at the end of August or beginning of September we are going to have to make an important outlay, count on a forecast of expenses. We can also recycle material from the previous year, we do not have to change the case every year, the colored pencils may be useful for us from one year to the next and the backpacks, depending on the state, may also serve us.
After-school activities, when are they recommended?

Extracurricular activities are recommended as long as they are constructive for the child, that is, it is very good that children, once they finish school hours, reinforce what they have learned or even acquire new knowledge. But the child must live these extracurricular activities as something playful.
We have to reach a kind of agreement within the possibilities, because if you tell a child that from 5 to 7 he has to be playing football, it will seem divine, but if you tell him he has to be playing the violin, and he does not like it, it will seem tedious. We have to try to reach an agreement, which are positive extracurricular activities for their learning, but also that are playful.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the uniform?
The use of the uniform has advantages and disadvantages. There are defenders and experts who even tell you that it can annul the personality. Without going to extremes, the truth is that the use of uniform is very comfortable, both for parents and children, because on the one hand you no longer have to think or talk with the child what clothes you wear tomorrow, the child puts on the uniform and, as he will see that the rest of the children also wear the uniform, he will not live it as something imposed, but as something normal.
It is also true that from the economic point of view it is much cheaper for the child to wear a uniform, to have many different changes. And then also, on the one hand, the uniform is not that it cancels the personality of the child, since the child has many ways of expressing his personality, from the hairstyle that leads to his way of speaking, his way of expressing himself, his communication does not verbal, and then have the whole weekend to put on the clothes that he likes, which will value much more. Generally, it is the school board together with the school management, which decides whether or not to establish the school uniform as compulsory.

What precautions should parents have when choosing a day care for their baby?
The choice of the educational center by parents is always something that must be taken into consideration. There are a series of parameters that make a school or a school ideal. We are talking about the proximity to the work center of parents or housing, the type of education offered, because each school has a different teaching philosophy (Montessori method, bilingual, Waldorf pedagogy ...) and the center's ideology or said more colloquially if it is a secular or religious school.
We must also see if it is a school that has many extracurricular activities or that does not have extracurricular activities in the afternoons. Basically, what is very important, regardless of the education we want to give our children, is that the center inspires us with confidence, and for that what we have to do is go to an educational center, talk to the management team, talk to the teacher and find that gives us confidence.