How to Help Your Child Adjust to Middle School!
When your child has left telemetry school behind they are about to embark on a whole new adventure. Why is middle school considered an adventure? Well up until this point your child has been treated like a child. But now they are starting to enter adulthood where they are expected to begin to act like adults. They will no longer have someone lining them up and walking them to their next class. They will now have the responsibility of getting to class on time by the time the bell rings.
Along with middle school come new experiences. Take for example the lockers. Most elementary school students do not have lockers or locks that they have to worry about. But when you finally reach middle school everyone is assigned a locker that is to be used to hold their books and other items. As well as a lock for their locker. In some schools they are given two locks. One for their regular locker and one for their gym locker. It will be your child’s responsibility to memorize their locker combinations without having it written down somewhere. Although there is nothing wrong with doing this for the first few days. But they will not want to keep their locker combination written down on anything. Why you may ask? Well obviously there is a reason why the school has chosen to give your child a lock for their lockers. This is so that no one else will have access to their items. This is especially true since so many kids now have cell phones, and Ipods that they are not allowed to carry around school with them. So they will end up locking them in their lockers. If someone else finds your child’s combination they could break into their locker and steal these items and maybe even other things like coats and books.
For a child going to middle school for the first time is really a challenge, and it will take some time for them to get used to it. It is important that as their parent you take the time to talk to them everyday after school. Let them know that you are there to support them and help them with any problems that they may be experiencing. This is the time to keep the lines of communication open. Most parents fail to do this when their child begins middle school, assuming that it is no big deal, but this is a very trying time in their lives. Not only are their bodies going through changes that they have never gone through before, but they will be dealing with a lot more difficult situations as they get older. This really is the time to further develop a friendship with your child. You still want them to understand that you are the parent and you set the rules, but try to be their friend as well. This is the best way to help your child cope with middle school.
There will also be a lot more homework this year then they have ever had in the past. So make sure that you are willing and able to help them with their assignments. The one thing you don’t want is for your child to be doing homework up until about ten o’clock at night. Homework should never take more than an hour and a half at the most. If they are having difficulty offer to help them. This will keep them from getting too stressed out with school, and will make for an easier adjustment.
