How to Get Your Brain Back-to-School Ready

The back-to-school season is here, and amidst your supply lists and schedule changes, don’t forget about prepping your child’s brain for the year ahead!

All learning happens because of cognitive skills that process the world around you. If your child’s brain is lagging in any of these areas, school is going to be harder than it needs to be.

But beyond cognitive skill strengthening, check out some of these tips for getting your child’s brain school-ready:

#1: Prep Early (and Practice!)

Don’t make the first week of school a shock for your child’s brain! Have them practice getting up earlier, organizing their school materials, and maybe even doing a little extra reading or writing to get those areas of their brain firing again. 

#2: Fuel Your Brain With Healthy Foods

Research shows that kids who eat breakfast have better memory, attention, problem-solving skills, and mood. Fueling your child’s brain all day with healthy protein, fat, fruits, and veggies can help them stay sharper and more engaged in the classroom!

#3: Prioritize Sleep (and Not Just on School Nights)

It’s easy to let routines slip during the summer, but as we get closer to the school year it becomes more important for kids to get a full night’s rest daily. A lack of sleep contributes to poor test scores, behavior, memory, attention, and learning skills. 

Instead of just focusing on quantity of sleep (are they getting enough?), it is also critical to make sure your kids’ sleep quality is high. Quality sleep during the back-to-school season can be a challenge because of new routines, higher stress, and needing to wake up earlier. To help prioritize your child’s sleep hygiene, focus on:

• Getting them screen-free for a couple hours before bed
• Making sure their rooms are dark and cool
• Leveraging their circadian rhythm (make it dark at night and exposing them to sunlight ASAP in the morning)

Having this set routine daily (even on weekends whenever possible) will help your child’s brain function more smoothly all year long!

#4: Set Family Goals and Expectations Now

Mindset and planning are important areas of brain health to focus on in your family. Does your child have any goals, fears, or expectations for themselves? Do you share these (or have any of your own)?

This is a critical conversation to have as a family before you get too far into the stress of the school year. Write these things down so you can refer back to them. When your child comes home stressed, see how their trigger aligns with your family’s goals and expectations.

For example…

Say your child comes home in tears because she got a C on her first science quiz. Her expectation (whether from herself or a parent or teacher) was that she should get an A. This disparity is causing her stress. When you have clear goals and expectations laid out, your response to this trigger can be one of learning and growing together instead of coming down hard on her.

A family with a clear goal that is focused on effort rather than performance will feel more supportive in the long run. For this example, maybe you refer back to your goal that “we will always try our best.” And if she did that, celebrate it together and then move forward with ways to adapt for harder situations that may be coming. 

Teaching and modeling this for your child will help them become more resilient and confident on their own!

#5: Have a Back-to-School Crisis Plan

If you get into the school year and you are shocked by the amount your child is struggling, what are you going to do?

Of course we don’t want to go into the year with the mindset that they are going to fail or have trouble, but being prepared with a plan is critical. The back-to-school season is hard on everyone, but if your child is:

• Constantly stressed out, dreading school, and dealing with low motivation…
• Behind in math, reading, or other critical skills that are relevant in every subject…
• Struggling to focus, remember, or organize their thoughts or spaces…

… then it’s time to pursue some extra support.

LearningRx brain training is a great tool to help boost your child’s ability to think, learn, and remember more easily. If your child is struggling, you don’t have to just “figure it out” by yourself. We are happy to partner with you to find out WHY (the root cause) and HOW (the solution) to get your child back on track!

Contact us today to learn more.