Back to School Tips
Information from the Family Guide at www.family.samhsa.gov
Show Your Kids Your
Best Back-to-School Behavior
Beep beep beep. The ringing of your child’s alarm clock signals that a new
school year has arrived. It’s time to prepare your child for waking up to that
alarm and getting out his pencils and books. To help your kids rebound from the
lazy days of summer, show them how to get ready for school. Although children
are taught from lesson plans at school, they also learn from the examples that
parents set at home. You are your child’s first teacher, so get ready to lead
a lesson about back-to-school routines.
Help With Homework
As a parent, it's important for you to be involved in your child's education,
and one way to do that is to help your child with homework. This may seem easier
said than done...especially when your child would rather watch TV than do
homework or if your child's math homework is too difficult for you to
understand. However, helping your child with homework can teach him the most
critical lesson of all—that learning is valuable and interesting and can be
fun.
Making
Friends in Middle School
Making good grades probably tops your list of goals for your middle school
student, but making friends is also important. Middle school marks a new chapter
in your child’s life. She’s moving away from childhood and into the
beginning of adolescence. Your middle schooler’s friends will help shape many
of her values and actions—including what she thinks about alcohol and whether
she drinks before her 21st birthday.
Teens’ Free Time
With Friends
It’s 3 p.m. on a school day. Do you know where your teen is…and who is with
him?
If he is like most teens, he probably likes to spend his free time with friends.
Fitting in among peers can be very important to teens,1 and your teen
may look to his peer group for clues on how he should behave. The friends your
teen chooses can affect his actions and his well-being, for better or for worse.
For example, children are more likely to drink alcohol if their friends also use
alcohol.2
De-stress tips from the playground
Over the summer is a great time to install some stress 'busting'
techniques while on vacation from school--a great time to practice! Here are
some tried and true techniques to help your child learn to de-stress at an early
age.
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Role playing. When your child comes home and describes a stressful
situation from school, practice playing different roles in the conflict to
help your child problem solve. Puppets can be a gerat tool in this exercise
to add fun and imagination to problem solving! |
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Muscle relaxation. It teaches kids to feel totally relaxed. You ask your
child to sit in a chair or lay on the floor. Start by making a really tight
fist and work up into the arm, making muscles tight like a rubber band ready
to snap. Then ask your child to go limp. Release the muscles. Open hands and
wiggle fingers. Follow this procedure with the rest of the body (legs, feet,
head, and face.) |
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Deep breathing. Teach your child to breathe in and out of his tummy to a
slow 4 count for each breath. |
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Imagine peaceful situations. Ask your child to think of several situations
in which he feels really good. Ask for details--get your child to describe
the place, the feeling, the smells, sights and tastes. Teach your child to
close his eyes and imagine he is there so the next time he is in a stressful
situation, he can close his eyes and go to a happy and relaxing place. |
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Use play and imagination to refocus energy and calm down. Ask your child
to visualize animals as you say the names--make it a game, like a trip to
the zoo: Let's go to the Zoo in our mind. What will we see? Maybe we see
an...ELEPHANT! Can you see him in your head? What is he doing? Next, we see
a...Penguin! Can you picture a penguin in your head? What does he look like? |
