Preparing your teen (or yourself) for school when summer is so relaxed, enjoyable, usually structureless and simply NOT school, can be challenging. If your student likes school it can be easier. If your student finds school challenging, you know the extra challenges that come with preparing for the next year ahead. Here are some tips that might be useful for your teen and you to be ready to enter that next school experience with as much motivation, determination and hope as possible:
1 Begin talking about school now. Don't wait until the week or day before. That does not mean having long conversations about how awful it will be. Rather, begin discussing the opportunities, possibilities and wishes for the upcoming year.
2. Begin stratgizing tools and techniques for meeting potential challenges. If you know that your student has difficulty sticking to a homework schedule and that impacts their grades, discuss trying something new. Snack before homework? Snack halfway through? Breaks every twenty minutes? Many students benefit from a physical daily calendar where they can write in 4:00-5:00 math; 10 minute break. 5:10-6:00 history. Dinner break. 7:00 - 8:00 Science, etc. Then when they compete a task they get to cross it off; that is a good feeling! Once they try this for a week or two they may find that alternative timing makes more sense, so they get to change their calendar to fit with the new reality.
3. Make a point of noticing how fun, special, enjoyable their summer is. Make a point of commenting on how much you like being with them. Make a point of noticing their physical, emotional, social, intellectual and any other changes that may be occurring. Even if you are still working full time, summer is typically a time when you get to be with your teen in a meaningful way that is unlike the stressful school year. Make sure to comment on that for them. Their relationship with you is still the most important one in which they engage.
4. Let them have down time. This is true of the school year as well. But research has shown that developing brains, bodies, spirits need time to "veg." So many of our youth are over-programmed these days. If they can at least have some slow, relaxing, non-pressured time during the summer, they will be able to dig into reserves and find energy, joy and calm that may have been missing during the school year.
5. Have fun!!! This means finding out what they think is fun and doing that with them. Maybe allow them to bring a friend or friends as well. You get the opportunity to know them "in their element" so to speak and they feel heard, seen and special enough that you took the time to do something that is meaningful to them.
Summer can be a marvelous couple of months to reconnect with your teen. Make sure to take advantage of those days. They go by very quickly.