Back To School Blues

Going back to school is a time of mixed feelings for children. The feelings involved consist of being: excited, interested, optimistic, fearful, anxious, and vulnerable to name just a few. However, when these feelings aren’t positive, they may manifest in physical symptoms such as sleep problems, tummy aches, dizziness, nausea, or asking too many questions.

This year, especially, COVID-19 has all the more changed the “going back to school” scenario for a lot of children.

In 2020, children were restricted to their homes and forced to cope with online lessons, academic challenges, social isolation and panic about the outcome of COVID-related health issues. So many children have seen so many losses. For example, the death of a loved one or the loss of social status due to parents being unemployed.

Now in 2021, most of the schools are making arrangements for face-to-face school, preparing to return to ‘normalcy.’

Some children may worry about how the virus will affect them and their loved ones.

Some may be concerned about their academic level. Regardless of their individual concerns, there is no doubt that COVID-19 has made the learning curve uneven for many kids.

Some children will have social anxiety, whereas other children feel excited about going back into the classroom. However, none of them will be able to jump out of bed in their PJ’s 5 minutes before school and get on screen for their online lessons. They will have to wake up, get dressed, eat and then leave for school (and face morning traffic!).

Whichever is the case, here are some ways you can help restore the status quo for your children in their journey back to school:

● Preemptively talk about possible scenarios that your child might be worried about. Reinforce the importance of using: masks, hand sanitizers, and social distancing. COVID-19 has temporarily changed the meaning of kindness.

Kindness means wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing - not only to protect yourself but also your peers. Talk about how kindness means not hugging or sharing lunch boxes with each other (YET!). Communicating with them validates their emotions and facilitates deriving rational solutions to emotional problems.

● Create a visual schedule, two weeks before school starts. This can be a visual schedule using pictures or drawings to delineate their routines in school. Also, set their alarm early so that their sleep cycle can get closer to their normal school routine.

● Schedule a visit to their new school: most schools will offer a back-to-school night or orientation session. However, if your school doesn’t offer one, you can try requesting the school’s staff to allow you and your child to visit.

● Vision boards offer exciting and creative ways of setting learning goals for the year ahead. This can be helpful to envision their school year ahead. Vision boards can be a digital collage or can be handmade with construction paper, a lot of poster colors, markers, and glue. Alternatively, making bracelets with an empowering word is also a great way of coping with school-related anxiety whilst doing something creative and engaging.

Finally, talk about having a growth mindset and use the word “YET” to validate their anxiety. You can’t do it “YET” does not mean you will “never” be able to do it. Take it one step at a time, maintain communication and collaborate with your child.

It’s normal for your child to feel fear and excitement; after all, going back to school can be quite overwhelming. However, if these fears don’t eventually dissipate, it’s a good idea to contact your school counselor or a counseling agency to seek help.

Blog post was written by:

Rubina Anis, MA Counseling, Msc Human Development LPC Associate

Supervised by Ashley Forster, M.Ed, LPC- S