Starting school can be a daunting time for not just the kids, but also for the parents. For many of us, we are preparing to send our kids off for 5-days a week into someone else’s care, where as they may have only been going 2 days prior, or maybe not all.
Sending your child of too school 5-days a week can bring up a few emotions. One, we are sure you feel proud as they are ready to take this next step and can’t wait for their first day. Two, You might feel a little nervous about how the are going to go being at school 5-days a week, and three; the feeling of losing a little bit of control as we handover the reigns to the school, his teacher and his peers 5-days a week and impart our trust for this next phase of learning and development.
In saying that, not all of the control is lost and there are many things that we can do as part of the school day routine to ensure they are ready each day, especially when it comes to keeping your little one healthy.
TIP ONE – The Lunchbox
Yes, it’s time to pack lunch everyday. Most schools now have a nude food policy in place, ensuring parents pack unpackaged and healthy food everyday.
What is a nude food policy? Nude Food is food without excess packaging. This reduces the amount of ‘stuff’ that needs to go in bins to be sent to landfill.
When buying or packing nude food, it often leads to choices at the supermarket that are healthier as we steer clear of pre-packaged foods. Here are just a few tips to help you prepare a healthy lunchbox and a link below to some inspiration of healthy ideas for the kids.
- To ensure, the lunchbox doesn’t get boring for your little one, I recommend planning the week ahead. Set aside some time on the weekend to bake some delicious snacks together at home.
- Always pack something in their lunchbox that you know they love so no matter how eager they are to start playing, they always eat something.
- Purchase a lunchbox with compartments or containers that are quick and easy for you to pack in the mornings and just as easy for their little hands to open. Some of our favourites here at The Chiropractic Works are;
- Yumbox Lunch – https://www.yumboxlunch.com
- LunchBots – https://www.lunchbots.com
Finally, for a little bit of inspiration of what to put in to the lunch box each day, visit our blog ‘our favourite websites for lunchbox inspiration’ for links to our go to site for lunchbox ideas.
TIP TWO – Immune boost
Add a little bit of extra fight to your little ones immune system with probiotics. As they start school, just like child care or kindy there could be some extra bugs floating around that they haven’t been exposed to before.
Adding a probiotic in to their everyday diet creates higher levels of good bacteria to help maintain digestive health and boost the immune system.
As each child is different, speak to our team about what probiotic is right for your child. If your child is already taking a probiotic, starting school is a good time to check that their current probiotic is still right for them and also booking in for an assessment as part of our Better Learning Program.
TIP THREE – Rest
Starting school can be a tiring experience and term 1 is going to have a lot of ‘firsts’ for your child. This can take extra energy as they are adapting to learning within the walls of their new surroundings. Ensuring your lifestyle allows enough time for them to rest as they need it is important to maintaining their health.
How much rest they need will vary for each child and only you know what is best. Here are some tips to consider to allow opportunity for rest;
- Not scheduling too much extra curricular activity in term 1.
- Allowing 1 day on every weekend that doesn’t have anything booked in
- If you feel that a day off at home during the school week is needed during that first term, this is something to consider and chat to their teacher about
- Allowing for a chill-out time at home in a quiet space
Finally, the first year of school is a year of firsts and it is also a year that as parents you will receive formal assessments about your child and where they are in terms of the social skills, education, physical skills and more.
At The Chiropractic Works, we have developed a Better Learning Program that assesses your child’s abilities and development to identify areas that might need improvement.
If you’re concerned about your Child’s development, no matter how big or small we recommend you book in for an initial assessment or click HERE to learn more about The Chiropractic Works Better Learning Program.
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