I have been out of school for long enough that I no longer have school nightmares every August/September anymore. But it took a number of years being away before those dreams faded!
There can be a lot of excitement over moving into higher grades or a new school, seeing friends you have been separated from over the summer and finding out what they did, and getting new clothes or school supplies (I love my notebooks and pens!) But also a lot of anxiety over new teachers, difficult subjects, locker combinations, finding your way around a new school, remembering a locker combination, and many other challenges. These days, there may be additional anxiety over being around other people with the threat of COVID.
Children may experience nightmares, behavioural problems, bed wetting, have headaches or stomachaches, or other symptoms.
So what can you do to help your kids (or yourself) feel better going back to the classroom?
- Encourage them to talk about it. Let them know they aren’t the only one feeling anxious and afraid. Sometimes it is easier to talk in the car or on a walk.
- Try to be calm and relaxed yourself. Kids can sense when you are stressed and reflect your feelings.
- Help to dispel anxiety over the unknown. Talk about the new routines, bus or walking routes, where their classroom is, and whatever else you can find ahead of time. Rehearse when possible.
- Role play challenging situations. Talking to friends and new teachers, dealing with bullying, asking for help.
- Try some relaxation exercises — visualization, deep breathing or box breathing, progressive muscle relaxation.
- Encourage exercise, including vigorous activity, good sleep habits, and a healthy diet.
- Seek professional help when necessary. If symptoms persist and are affecting their quality of life, seek a qualified professional for counseling and possibly medication.
How about escaping to some great books?
Endless Change
She was a broken bird
He was a mender of wings
Parker’s mother always said he jumped into things without thinking first, and that’s exactly what he did when he saw Dakota, cold and hungry, fending for herself on the city streets. How could he ignore the pain and fear in her dark eyes? Dakota was eager to go to school and she made friends quickly, eager to make up for a dismal childhood full of deprivation and abuse by enjoying every moment she could.
But there was something wrong with Dakota. It wasn’t just the hollowness in her eyes or her traumatic past. Others sensed it too and warned Parker not to get too close to Dakota. But despite his questions, he just can’t help falling for her.
Dakota holds her secrets close, and Parker is worried that if he pushes too hard for answers, she’ll just run away.
Placed on the In the Margins Committee Recommended Reads, 2018 by Library Services for Youth in Custody.
By the author of Tattooed Teardrops, winner of the Top Fiction Award, In the Margins Committee, 2016.
If you enjoy gritty contemporary young adult books like those by John Green and Stephen Chbosky, give P.D. Workman’s Endless Change a try.
In a genre dominated by kick-ass heroines in post-apocalyptic dystopian worlds, wizards and magical realism, Ms. Workman is carving out her own niche. Her books show us real kids facing scary real-life problems in the modern world. Her work is both an invitation to empathy and a cautionary tale.
—Talena Winters
Stand Alone
Is Justine crazy?
Everyone thinks so…
Her mother. The kids at school, and the teachers and administrators too. Even the police who pick her up from her night rambles. Maybe them most of all.
Justine’s therapist says she is ‘troubled’, but it means the same thing. He thinks that her vivid, reoccurring nightmares and atrocious behavior point to some trauma in her past; but Em, Justine’s mother, can’t explain it.
Justine used to have Christian, her best friend and skateboard partner. He was the only one who accepted her. Maybe because skating is the only time that Justine is really free to be herself. Now that Christian is gone… Justine keeps thinking things can’t get any worse.
Even as she sees her life spinning further and further out of control, Justine can’t give up her sense of who she is—someone far different than the loving daughter Em expects her to be—to just fit in and be happy. She is sure that Em secretly holds the key to who Justine really is. But if she does, Em isn’t talking.
The portrayal of Justine felt very true to me. I had a troubled childhood and youth myself and I really identified with Justine’s feelings, words, and actions. Some of the things Justine said and did were things I said and did when I was her age. The characters felt very three-dimensional and real. The story pulled me in and I just had to know how it ended! I swayed back and forth in my opinions about all the characters and was very satisfied with how everything played out in the end.
—Sparrow, Amazon reader
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Lion Within
The lion rages within him.
Leo grew up between a rock and a hard place. His experiences as a child made him tough. As the oldest of the children, the drive to be the protector of the innocent and helpless permeates every part of his life. But so does the anger that no amount of boxing can ever exorcise.
As he waits for the monster who is his father to die, a chance encounter brings Elizabeth and her baby into his protective circle. But is Elizabeth as lost and innocent she seems to be? Or has her own experiences turned her into something else?
As he learns more, Leo wonders whether he can help Elizabeth or if he is messing around with something beyond his ability to manage.
I really liked this book. It made me cry a lot, I felt sorry for the male protagonist in this book for all the trouble that his parents put him through. I can also understand that he had a hard time as an adult with trying to trust people when you go through what this young man and his siblings went through it just amazes me that they could even function in life and not let it get them down. I will read more by this author in future.
—Rebecca, Goodreads Reader
Intersexion
Taylor is a teen teetering on the edge of a steep precipice. Disowned by his family, living on the street, battling abuse and prejudice, he struggles to discover who he really is and how to carry on with life.
The last person you would expect to touch him is Roz, whose foremost identity is a Christian wife and mother. But her world is about to be shaken. Through all that happens, Roz understands she has to be there for Taylor, knowing he is only one step from despair and self-destruction.
Absolutely loved this book, I sure hope there’s a sequel. Taylor’s life is so interesting I need to know more…
Reading Taylor’s journey from parental abuse, to the group home, to peer abuse is heartbreaking, inspiring and such a great read giving opinion and fact from the religious to the scientific spectrum. A great read and so well written.
“[P.D. Workman’s] stories are so believable and you can’t help but feel like you know these people. You find yourself crying, laughing and feeling the characters emotions. Now if an author can make you cry and feel every emotion in a story, she is one hell of an author.”
“She has a real handle on some of the terrible things that life hands out. One awful thing is man’s inhumanity to man. The worst is man’s inhumanity to children…”
Start on a journey of discovery with Taylor and Roz today.
Cynthia Has a Secret
One day, fifteen-year-old Carmina Knight’s life was perfect, and the next, she’d lost everything. Her family, her home, almost everything that she knew. Alone on the streets, she can’t trust anyone, but she also can’t make it alone.
Neil Crowther is the investigator on the Knight case. He knows that he has to unravel the web of deceit and track Carmina down quickly, or there will be no one left to save.
It takes a while to learn Cynthia’s secret. The author keeps us in suspense, which keeps us riveted to the story. I would recommend this book to boys and girls from upper grade school to high school.
—Victoria, Goodreads Reader
This is a great story of a young girl’s struggle to survive
