Back to school after Christmas
Children always have longer days than adults, so during the Christmas holidays they have more than enough time to unwind and relax. But after so many days of holidays to celebrate Christmas, it is worth bearing in mind a series of tips so that returning to school after Christmas does not become an odyssey and costs them more than normal.
Go to bed and get up early before going back to school
The key is to take into account what your routine is and where the differences lie between what you do daily on school days and during school days. Christmas holidays. When they go to school, they have to get up early and, although during the Christmas season it is better to let them rest a little more, when we see that the school's start day is approaching, it is advisable to awaken them a little before to become a habit. This will not cost them so much to face January 8 of the calendar.
This is the date of return for the post-school return to school that has been set in most of the Spanish Autonomous Communities for the school year. Thus, the children will have this year a rest day to relax the nerves of the day of Three Wise Men and the night of anticipation.
How to resume the routine after Christmas?
But it is not only important that they go progressively getting up a little earlier but, moreover, it is essential that little by little they also begin to return to other customs.
1. Go to bed soon. Thus we avoid that on day 7 they resist to get into bed for lack of habit. Do not forget that they do not need the famous 20 days to turn a habit into a habit. Then internalize both good and bad habits.
2. Maintain bath time. The relaxing bath before dinner, helps the children to get into bed earlier and thus make the back to school after Christmas. Therefore, if your children usually shower every day after playing and doing their homework (around seven thirty or eight in the afternoon), it is convenient that, the days that you do not leave or go to have people at home, keep the time of the bathroom.
3. Dinner with the family. The dinner time with the family is another of the customs that we must keep at Christmas. The routines are excellent for children. Thus, although they enjoy the holidays, they will not forget that there are routines that must be maintained.
4. Avoid leaving homework for the day before of the return to school after Christmas. This will avoid last-minute stress. Generally, teachers of our children often put homework for Christmas so that children do not disconnect too much. At the end of the day, this is the only way to reinforce the knowledge and that, when returning, they have not forgotten the concepts they learned before they left. In addition, from the second cycle of Primary Education, in many educational centers the final exams are carried out as a culmination to the first evaluation. The second evaluation touches its end with Holy Week and the third with summer vacations.
5. Dedicate 20 minutes a day. After having made an important intellectual effort, the children tend to get rid of all the memorized matter and leave room in their brain for games, activities and gifts. This is not a negative aspect but you have to know how to set limits so we can not leave homework for the last moment. It is enough to dedicate 20 minutes a day to the accomplishment of some of the marked exercises.
6. Read a little bit every afternoon. Take advantage of the Christmas holidays to encourage a little the taste for reading of children.
7. Order among your things to go back to school after Christmas. Whether we have gone on a trip or not, it is totally normal that the case, the markers, the notebooks and the cards have been confused by hidden places in the house. The parties are to mess like Christmas to nougat. Do not take your hands to your head or have to scold our children. What we will do is dedicate one of the previous evenings to put everything in its place and this way we will educate them in the order and we will transmit to them the importance of arranging with precision the things to begin again.
Elisa García
Advice: European School of Madrid
