One week before school:

1. Start your School Sleep Routine – Routines can be relaxed in the summer, so a week prior to school is a good time to adjust the family schedule to get everyone back into morning and bedtime habits.

• Establish bedtimes for the school year and start following them

• Ensure the entire family is up when they would be for school

• For older children, give them their own alarm clock and let them practice using it

• Ensure that the entire family get involved so that your child doesn’t feel alone with these changes

2. Promote Healthy Eating Habits – Nutrition is extremely important; it’s hard to cope well when you are tired or hungry, so provide your child nutritious and frequent snacks and build in regular routines.

• Start having your meals around regular mealtimes

• Ask your child to help you create a school lunch menu for the first week of school

• Allow your child to pick out his or her favorite snacks

• Allow your child to help you plan your dinner meals; this way they will have a yummy dinner to look forward to

3. Shop for Supplies – Make picking out school supplies a fun task!

• Create a list of school supplies with your child

• Plan a fun shopping trip to pick out supplies

4. Encourage Your Child to Share His or Her Fears – Talk to your child about his or her worries and practice coping skills

• Touch base with your child at a regular time each day to discuss your child’s worries and encourage him or her to problem solve and plan

• Role-play with your child

• Focus on the positive aspects – ask your child to list the three things that they are most excited about on the first day

• Practice calm breathing with your child – they can learn to use this when her anxiety rises

• Develop cognitive coping cards that your child can use to help cope with anxiety a couple of days before school