At schools across the world, we can find two categories of children. One that starts the first day of school with a great smile and one that cries each day at the entrance of the school. If you want to ensure that your child falls in the former category, here are some tried and tested tips to help you both.

 When children don’t have enough information about a place, they become afraid and nervous. Their worst fears come to life because they just don’t know what to expect. When it comes to schools, they have no idea where they are going to sit, where the toilets are, how their teacher will be and where their room will be. This is bad enough to even get an adult frightened! At our Montessori pre-school, we encourage parents to bring their children over for a tour of the school a few days before the new year begins. Once they know what to expect, their fear levels do come down drastically.

They say that worried parents tend to have worried kids. If you spend too much time calming your child’s fears, they might think the problem is in fact so great that you were worried too. Instead, give your child confidence with a lot of ‘I love yous’ and ‘I know you can do its’. Confident parents have confident kids.

Take it from the Montessori teachers – children settle down very quickly in the classroom environment, even when they cry and fuss when they reach school. Parents hanging around the school compound do not help in making a child less anxious. So, before you take your child to school on his first few days, prepare to have a heart of stone and give your child a huge hug, a big kiss and a confident ‘I love you, see you later’ and leave. Teachers will manage your children just fine after that. Your child will also understand that you need to leave and this will become a good habit forming situation.

Happy parenting folks!