New school year

Once again, its that wonderful time of year when we send our precious children back to school to learn something new. As parents, we have an obligation to our children to make sure they receive a quality education. As the day approaches when you kiss your child good bye and send them to school, here are some suggestions to start the year off successfully.

For younger children, establish a bed time. Kinder-3 grade, 8pm. 4-5 grade 8:30pm. 6-8 grade 9-9:30pm. Once your child is in high school, homework and extracurricular activities will determine their bedtime. It's important for your child to get a good nights sleep. Just like with adults, if we do not have adequate sleep we are cranky, tired, irritable, and snappy your children will have the same symptoms and have a hard time learning.

Make sure your child eats a well balanced meal which should include an abundance of fruit and vegetables. Limit or eliminate soda, candy, sugar, cookies, and chips. These foods should be enjoyed in moderation. Have your child eat a nutritious breakfast. Limit cereal that is high in sugar. Please do not allow your child to eat hot chips, candy, donuts, and soda for breakfast. This is not brain food. Most schools try to serve a nutritous lunch, however, most children do not like school lunches so have your child pack a nutritious lunch. Sample lunch, turkey sandwich, fruit, vegetable slices (carrots, celery), crackers, water, and 100% fruit juice.

Eliminate morning stress by having your child pack their backpack and snack/ lunch the night before. Have them place their bag by the front door or another designated place. Have them pick out their clothes the night before. Gather shoes and jackets and place with the backpack. Doing this has helped my family tremendously. I leave at 5am with my 4 year old so having lunch and bags ready has all but eliminated the need to search for shoes and jackets because they are right there by the door. All I have to do is take the lunch out the fridge, grab our bags and go.

If time permits, stay around and meet with you child's teacher on the first day of school. Tis is mainly for elementary children because they only have one teacher. Introduce yourself to the teacher and offer the teacher your phone number and email address. Let the teacher know that you want to be an ally plus your child will know that you care about their education.

These are only a few suggestions to help prepare for the first day of school. More suggestions to follow.