The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) is urging parents to ease students into the school routine.
Community Relations Officer, ECC, Region 7, Shaunette Grant, said a return to the school routine can be difficult for both parents and students. She explained that many students across Jamaica enjoyed a care-free summer holiday with endless hours on their devices and very little sleep. “Start practising now. Start doing the simulation exercises where we set the alarms, where we communicate with each other about breakfast time, and where we have different conversations about where bags, shoes and uniforms should be,” Ms. Grant said.
She was addressing the ECC’s virtual Back-to-School Readiness forum, hosted in collaboration with Serenity Resource Connector, on Thursday (August 15). Ms. Grant outlined that parents must implement a bedtime routine, a wake-up routine, have their children sit down for breakfast and explore breakfast meal ideas. “You are preparing them mentally as well as physically for when September morning hits us, which is in a few weeks,” she said. Meanwhile, Ms. Grant said parents must also begin to mentally prepare for the changes in the back-to-school routine of their children – a child’s first time at school or transition to another level of education.
“One of the things that can assist the parents with the smaller ones going out is the community. You have neighbours who have children going out to the same institutions and what you can do is to actually have conversations with those parents and let the children interact with those children as well. When they get to school, it’s not going to be so new for them, because at least they have that one friend from home,” she explained.
Ms. Grant added that now is the time for parents to introduce their children to the people who will take them to or pick them up from school. “What are the plans you have in place? Is it a taxi? Do they know the taxi driver? Are they familiar with the persons who will pick them up and drop them off?” she asked. Ms. Grant further encouraged parents to involve their family members in the process, as it takes a village to raise a child.
