Back to school – fun tips!

It’s almost time. In two weeks, all children will have had their first full-time day back at school after a long break! In the meantime, we hope everyone has also been able to enjoy a well-deserved holiday. Whether it was at home, in your own country, or across the Belgian border, relaxation is just as important as effort.

For children who find certain school skills more challenging, this is the ideal moment to start preparing for the new school year again, to refresh a few topics, and to ease back into the school rhythm. But it is still holiday time. That’s why it’s good to alternate short moments of review or revision with plenty of movement and relaxation activities. A practice moment doesn’t have to feel like a “task” at all but can certainly be done in a fun and playful way.

We – as the multidisciplinary team of Kindercentrum De Groeitrap – are happy to share some tips.

1. Reading tips

- Make a reading bingo. A card with 10 fun and/or funny locations, positions,... where reading can be done. Every day the child chooses one of the options and reads 1 page from a book at his/her level. Some examples: on the toilet, standing on a chair, in mommy&daddy's bed, sitting cross-legged, in the basement, on the 10th ^step of the stairs,...

- While brother/sister/mom/dad brushes their teeth, read a fun book for 2 minutes. Choose a book you like! Afterwards, switch roles.

2. Language/spelling tips

- Play a board game with dice together. Before you can roll the dice, spell or chop and paste a word, or find rhyming words.

- Find a nice picture book and make up your own story for one specific page.

- Dictate 5 words to your child that he/she writes down. Let him/her think of a nice story with these words afterwards.

3. Calculation tips

- Repetition of the multiplication tables:

• Take a game of UNO or a book of cards (use only cards 1 to 10). Make two equal piles and place them in front of the child, with the numbers facing down. Now let your child turn over 2 cards together and perform this operation.
• Place a box of numbers at the bottom or top of the stairs. Every time your child goes up or down the stairs, he or she takes a number from the box and repeats this table by saying a multiplication table out loud for each step. For example: number 3; 1^st step 1x3=3; 2^nd step 2x3=6;…

- Mental arithmetic

• Write a number between 1 and 20 on a piece of paper. Let your child split it up in as many ways as possible.
• Say a number between 0 and 100. Ask your child the previous and next tens.
• Make a arithmetic snake. Start with a simple sum such as 9+6=15; when your child has given the result, do a arithmetic exercise (+; -; x; /) with the result of the previous exercises, here 15.
• Here you can also work with cards. After your child has given the result, he/she draws a new card and adds this number to the previous result.

4. Movement tip

Under the heading of movement, we as a team find it especially important that every short repetition moment is also alternated with some movement. Do not let your child sit and practice for hours a day, do not let your child sit in front of a screen for too long. Screen time can of course be built in, but try to limit it. In addition to the known benefits of physical exertion, movement also provides mental relaxation and more self-confidence, concentration and motivation.

- Build some movement activities into the practice moment itself. For example, let your child stand up after a few minutes or after a few exercises and walk around, jump, crawl, walk up and down the stairs, ... Just take a break and get back to it.

- Try playing a fun movement game together before going to bed. Activity ensures good sleep, and good sleep ensures storage of practiced material during the day. It doesn't have to be complicated:

• Walk or short bike ride
• Twister of limbo
• Find a nice dance song on YouTube and make it a habit to repeat it every day (e.g. Morning exercises with Samson&Marie, Vliegerlied,…)
• Make a hopscotch course with sidewalk chalk
• Play each other's mirror image. Someone moves and the other plays the mirror
• Keep a ball or balloon in the air for as long as possible, alone, with two people or with the whole family
• Trust game: let your brothers or sisters, mom or dad blindfold you to another room in your house. Afterwards you reverse roles.

5. Relaxation and motivation tips

Children who struggle with certain skills often experience so-called limiting thoughts. When faced with a task, they may quickly think “I can’t do this, I'll never manage, that’s too hard”. However, when children are askd to do things that are more challenging or require extra effort, it's better for them to use helpful thoughts (see below). 

In addition, it's always worthwhile to regularly focus on the things that are going well in life. Teach children to look for the positive aspects and not just focus on what is not going right.

Some tips to get you started

- For one week,take note of when you used or could have used the helpful thoughts below:

• I don’t have to get it right immediately
• I trust that I will get better over time
• It’s okay to ask for help
• Making mistakes is part of learning and practicing
• I'll just try again

- Before going to bed, name 2 things you liked about your day.

- Before going to bed, name 2 things you are good at; write them on a post-it, stick them on your door and read them out loud the next morning.

- Before going to bed, name 2 things you are looking forward to in September.