Most parents bring their children to first grade after kindergarten. Therefore, they remember something or at least hear about adaptation to the kindergarten. When entering a kindergarten, the child is still small, the parents are trying to educate themselves about upbringing. Therefore, they read a lot about adaptation to kindergarten, consult with psychologists or other parents. But by school, this parental passion dies down. Unfortunately, most parents believe that the main thing is to apply to school. And this is where their function ends. Further the work of teachers. Parents who take such a position completely forget or simply do not know about such a concept as adaptation to school. But the success of the adaptation period will depend on how comfortable the child will be at school, whether he will be happy to attend it and be friends with other children. It is very difficult to correct the consequences of maladjustment. During the adaptation period, a reserve is formed for the entire period of schooling, and this is 11 years of a child's life!
What is the adaptation of the child to school? What is it? School is a fundamentally new environment for a child. Remember what your child does in kindergarten: plays, walks. Yes, he attends certain classes in the kindergarten, but he does not receive marks for the result of his work. Upon admission to school, the position of the child in society changes dramatically. He is no longer just a child, but a student. The title of apprentice imposes many obligations that did not exist before.
In addition, the child's routine is changing. Before that, no one forced the child to sit for 40 minutes with breaks of 10-20 minutes. At the same time, not just sit a lesson, but intensely strain your attention.
The child must get used to and adapt also to the new environment. A new significant figure appears in his life - a teacher - an official person who must be obeyed and respected. And the new environment - the class - with which you need to make friends. In this case, a situation of rivalry also arises: someone learns easily and at the same time does everything well, while for someone it is very difficult to study.
A child's adaptation to school is that he gets used to following the rules of conduct in the lesson, can concentrate during the lesson, finds a common language with other children in the class, and also maintains a mostly positive emotional state.
If the adaptation is successful, the child goes to school with pleasure, tells his parents about it, is in a good emotional state after school.
How can you notice that your child is not adapting well to school? Normally, adaptation takes about a month. That is, you can judge its results not earlier than October. You should pay attention and be on your guard if
- the child himself tells you that he feels bad at school;
- the child began to be ill and / or sleep poorly;
- comes from school overworked or, on the contrary, overexcited (overexcitation speaks of exhaustion of the nervous system);
- the child did not have at least one friend in the class.
How can you test your concerns? Ask your child to draw what they like about school. From this picture, you will understand whether the child likes to go to school and what motives dominate in this case.
- If the child says that he does not like anything, you yourself can understand the conclusion. But more often children draw at least something.
- If your child drew a lesson situation, it means that he goes to school to study, the student's position has been formed. In this case, you don't have to worry. Most likely, the adaptation process is going well.
- If the child draws a situation at recess (for example, some kind of joint games with classmates), then keep in mind that your child does not yet understand why he needs school and his game motives prevail. This is bad in the sense that at the first difficulties in the educational process, such children easily give up. But, nevertheless, having a playful motive for attending school is better than a complete lack of desire to attend it. In this case, you need to transform the play motive into an educational one. You can ask a school psychologist for help.
Pay attention to the colors in which your child completed the drawing. It is good if the colors are bright, juicy, light. But the predominance of black, brown, gray, may indicate the inner anxiety of the child.
The most important thing in the period of adaptation to school is your sincere interest in the life of your child and your desire to help him. If you have established a trusting relationship, then you will learn about his experiences much earlier and will be able to take action in time, without starting the problem. Communicate with your child in informal phrases. Show that it really matters to you what is happening to him. Then, even if the child has problems at school, he will know that he can always lean on you.
