1st grade and adaptation to school: 6 tips for parents of first-graders

“Six techniques” for preparing for school: advice from a psychologist for parents of first-graders

There is very little time left until the start of the new school year. It will be especially difficult for first-graders to fit into the school schedule. According to teachers and psychologists, the first months of kindergarten graduates will be spent adapting to new conditions; we are talking specifically about the psychological restructuring of the children’s lives. Tyumen educational psychologist Natalya Kurmanova assures that in the first grade children most often suffer from regime changes. In kindergarten they were treated more leniently, but at school they have certain requirements, and not everyone is ready to accept them. The specialist spoke about how to psychologically prepare a child for a new stage of life in an interview with our publication.

Cor.: Very often you hear the phrase: “The child must be psychologically prepared for school”... What should parents mean by this phrase, and is it possible to prepare a first-grader for school?

Psychological readiness is a combination of a child's intellectual and personal development. Many parents believe that for a child to be successful in school, it is enough to organize only intellectual readiness - to teach the child to read, count and solve, and this will ensure his full preparation for school, but a very important aspect in preparation is internal personal readiness: his level of adaptation to new conditions , level of independence and self-service, assimilation of social norms and rules. At 6-7 years old, the entire psychological appearance of the child changes, his personality, cognitive and mental capabilities, the sphere of emotions and experiences, and his social circle are transformed.

The child is not always well aware of his new position, but he certainly feels and experiences it: he is proud that he has become an adult. The child’s experience of his new social status is associated with the emergence of the “internal position of the student.”

There is such a thing as partial readiness for school, when a child is not able to quickly absorb new knowledge and needs additional time, so educational programs are always designed for children with an average level of preparedness. Many of today's first-graders are highly skilled in academic pursuits even before they arrive at school. Intensive training, visits to preschool lyceums, gymnasiums, etc. often leads to the fact that entering school loses the element of novelty for the child and makes it difficult to experience the significance of this event. In addition, the program designed for the average student seems uninteresting and already familiar to them.

In maintaining the “internal position of a student” in a first-grader, parents play an invaluable role. Advice to parents: your serious attitude to the child’s school life, attention to his successes and failures, patience, mandatory encouragement of efforts and efforts, emotional support help you feel the significance of your activities, help increase the child’s self-esteem and self-confidence.

Cor: What problems and difficulties do first-graders face at school from a psychological point of view?

In the first grade, children most often suffer from regime changes. In kindergarten they were treated more leniently, but at school certain demands are placed on them, and not everyone is ready to accept them. There is a problem of restlessness; they cannot sit still for more than 20 minutes. Many modern children have not developed the skills of independence and self-service; they cannot prepare for class, lose things during physical education classes, in the locker room, and forget about their briefcases. There are a lot of guys in the class, and you need to find an approach to everyone. It is necessary to get used to the teacher, to his manner of behavior, to his voice, etc. Many people react very negatively to being called by their last name, they are offended, it is difficult for them to accept themselves as a separate, independent person, but this must be instilled.

Cor.: Are there any simple techniques for adapting to the start of school?

In order for the adaptation process to be as painless as possible, parents need to make efforts already in the summer.

The first reception is the first visit to school with the child. The child should feel your emotional mood. If the parent is positive and optimistic towards school, then the child will internalize this attitude very deeply, and in the future he will not have anxiety from attending school.

The second trick is that it is advisable for parents to arrange for their child to attend a school camp during the summer holidays. This way he will be able to quickly assess the situation and adapt; already in the summer, the preschooler masters the space in which he will have to study. At the beginning of the school year, he will not have to waste energy and time to navigate the school walls; he will have more chances to show curiosity about the school subjects themselves, and not about the walls of the school.

The third step - in August, 2-3 weeks before the start of the school year, it is necessary to regulate the daily routine that will be in effect during the school period; getting up in the morning should correspond to the time when you have to wake up during school hours. By gradually accustoming the child to a daily routine, parents will help the child ease the period of adaptation to new circumstances.

The fourth technique is that when performing activities, it is important for adults to maintain a positive attitude so as not to scare away the child.

Fifth technique - it is better to conduct classes in a playful way, making sure to take breaks for rest and games. The maximum concentration of attention in children at this age is 20 minutes, after which fatigue sets in, after 5-7 minutes of changing activities, the child is again ready to work actively. At the same time, he must understand that his work is adequately encouraged by adults and reinforced with praise.

The sixth trick is that it will be much easier for a child to adapt to new conditions if someone he knows is studying with him in the class. Try to organize for your child the opportunity to communicate with peers, if possible with future classmates.

Teacher-psychologist Natalya Kurmanova

Cor.: How to properly structure a schoolchild’s daily routine so that he can comfortably endure new loads?

The most rational allocation of time for a future first-grader is a daily routine that takes into account the individual characteristics of the child himself. The most active hours for children aged 6-7 years are: 8.00-11.00 and 16.00-17.00.

For example, if your child is a morning person, then the most active activities should be planned for the first half of the day, and if he is a night owl, he will be more active in the afternoon. But, I suggest you build a first-grader’s daily routine approximately as follows. Try to have him go to bed no later than 9 pm and get up at 7 am, because... A first-grader should sleep at least 10 hours, plus a daytime nap to which the body is accustomed. Children should be in the fresh air for at least 3 hours a day, so immediately after school, take a walk with your child for at least 40 minutes. Only then go to lunch - let him work up an appetite.

Lunch should be at 13.30-14.00 . After this, give your fidget a good rest. There is no need to immediately sit him down for homework; after lunch, his performance declines. If the child is used to watching TV or playing games, then from 15.00-16.00 is the best time.

Even if the child no longer sleeps during the day, he may come home and fall asleep immediately. This means that the body is exhausted. Give your child a chance to rest.

Only when the child has eaten and rested can he sit down for his lessons. The optimal time is 16.00-17.00. In the first grade, homework is not assigned, but this time can be spent looking through the material studied at school with the child, helping the child reproduce what he remembers most during the day, finding out what topics he might have difficulties with and helping him figure out.

After preparing your homework, your child can go to a section or club. The road there can be combined with a walk.

And no homework in the evening! Don't have time for the club? It is better to postpone one lesson than to move classes to the evening.

Overexcitement that has accumulated during the day should be relieved with a walk. Do not think that evening dancing and unprecedented activity indicate that the child is not tired. To relieve stress, take your child for a walk before bed. If we go to bed at 21.00, then we should start walking no later than 19.30, immediately after dinner.

Going to bed should be calm, without talking about the day's difficulties and without reminders of annoying mistakes or failures of the past day.

Cor.: What guidelines need to be conveyed to a child entering first grade? Some children, after going to school a little, say - I don’t want to, I won’t go, I’m not interested... What to answer?

Children may say - I don’t want to, I won’t go, it’s not interesting for several reasons: parents themselves are “afraid” of school; are nervous that they will have to take on additional workload and responsibility; when children see that parents have a negative attitude towards school, and even towards teachers; when parents themselves have no interest in knowledge, they do not read; when a child does not feel supported by his parents. If a teacher complains about a child’s behavior, and parents punish him without understanding, it becomes firmly established in his mind that school is bad. Often, before entering school, a child is intensively prepared, and then he is not interested in the program that he has already mastered in preschool age. Psychologically, the child missed the period when the leading activity was role-playing play; in a word, he did not play enough. Therefore, a positive attitude towards school and learning directly depends on the attitude of a significant adult, his parents, towards school.

The most important thing, according to psychologists, is to support a first-grader in his desire to succeed. A beginning student should be praised for every achievement. Praise and emotional support (“well done!”, “you did so well!”) can increase the intellectual achievements of even an adult, not to mention a child. Moms and dads are also advised not to forget that when a person studies, he may not succeed in something and this is quite natural - the child has the right to make a mistake.

Experts recommend not sending your child to school without breakfast, and to be attentive to complaints of headaches, fatigue, poor health - most often these are objective indicators of fatigue and learning difficulties. In addition, you need to control the amount of time spent on gadgets; for a seven-year-old, the norm is only 15-20 minutes a day.

Recently, Tyumen residents can receive a free consultation with a psychologist; for all questions that arise, you are welcome in the virtual office on the Health Territory . Here you can anonymously discuss family or personal problems.

Interviewed by Elena KUKHALSKAYA, photo by the author

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Signs of maladjustment

You often see your child tired, he cannot fall asleep in the evening and has difficulty waking up in the morning. The child complains about his classmates and the teacher’s demands. It is difficult for him to meet school requirements; he internally resists, is capricious, and offended. Typically, such children experience difficulties in learning activities. Only by the end of the first half of the year, with the help of the work of a teacher, psychologist, and parents, do they adapt to the school environment.

It often happens that the external manifestations in children are the same - most often it is tearfulness, resentment, fatigue - but they have completely different reasons. And they need to be dealt with individually.

Irina’s mother, in a conversation with a psychologist, noted that the girl spoke negatively about her classmates; negative emotions manifested themselves in the form of screams, tears, and reluctance to go to school. As psychologists later found out, Irina’s motor skills are underdeveloped, concentration and attention span are poorly developed, and the girl lacks the will and effort to sit through the lesson.

In the middle of the first grade, Savelya’s mother began to complain to the psychologist: the boy was rude, did not respond to the teacher’s comments, and almost burst into tears. A conversation with the teacher made it clear that Saveliy has a hard time with mathematics, he has difficulty counting and does not remember well. Problems accumulate and accumulate, and the punishments of adults and their severity only get in the way.

Quite often, parents unknowingly complicate the lives of first-graders by:

• load with new mugs (during the adaptation period they can lead to overload; it is better to leave only what the baby has known and can do for a long time);
• dramatically change family relationships (“You’re big now, you have to wash the dishes yourself,” etc.)

How to properly prepare a child for 1st grade

Preparing a child for 1st grade brings a lot of trouble to parents, because everything needs to be provided, from clothes to stationery. Therefore, you should consider the question of what your child will really need during the school year and what can be done without.

Of course, help can be provided by the teacher, who will hand over lists of everything necessary that every student should have. In addition, the teacher will tell you what kind of everyday dress students should wear.

Russian schools are empowered to independently organize the educational process and choose which textbooks and notebooks children will use. This does not apply to programs developed by the relevant ministry.

Parents can purchase school uniforms and necessary benefits together by collecting the required amount of money.

Master classes for schoolchildren of grades 5, 6, 7

1. Children at this age actively express a desire to stand out, to find something special for themselves and their identification. Therefore, it is so important for parents to help their children find and find themselves at this age.
2. Children have good hand motor skills and active brain activity aimed at learning. This makes it possible to give children more complex master classes that use difficult decorative techniques and complex devices.

• Birdhouse decor
• Origami
• Weaving wreaths
• Headband decor
• Cap decor
• Making magnets
• Decorating a wall clock
• Photo album decor
• Gzhel and Khokhloma painting
• Creating turntables
• Creating keychains
• Florarium
• Painting nesting dolls
• Bouquet of sweets
• Mobile manufacturing
• Ebru
• Aquarium with goldfish

Practical advice at the pre-school stage

• Don’t be afraid to leave your child alone at home - first for a short time, then increasing the time, having previously discussed safety rules with him. You won’t be able to be with him at school!
• Teach your child to do something useful on his own.
• Teach him to make decisions. To do this, learn to respect his opinion, but so that it does not harm. Calmly explain why something is better and something is worse for him.

Ask, for example: “Will you go to the store with me? I want to consult with you on what gift to choose for dad,” “Will you wear a warm jacket, because it’s cold outside?”

• Respect his right to make mistakes.

• All requirements for the baby must be feasible in terms of time and workload.
• Give him time to think.
• Be sure to arrange small and big holidays for your baby, and always celebrate his victories.
• Don't criticize people harshly for failures. It’s better to slowly figure out where the mistake was and what needs to be “tightened up.”
• If any difficulties arise, do not hesitate to contact specialized specialists: speech therapist, speech pathologist, psychologist, pediatrician and others.