Spring is here and the end of the school is near. Coming back from spring break and realizing that the semester is coming to a close often fuels students’ anxiety. How can we help our students manage this extra stress?
1. Self-care
Today, self-care is almost synonymous with taking baths and treating yourself to your favorite food when you need a pick-me-up. While we support that, we want to take it back to basics. As a parent, you need to be practicing all of the basic needs, not just to set an example, but to keep yourself feeling happy and healthy. A stressed out teen can lead to a parent with sympathetic anxiety as well. What do you need to do to take care of yourself and your student?
Nutrition: Eat as cleanly as possible.
Sleep: This time of year is tricky since it stays lighter, longer. It’s easy to go to bed late when it’s so tempting to stay out and enjoy the daylight saving perks. It catches up with our students, especially the last few weeks of school.
Exercise: Movement, movement, movement. Are you moving every day? Is your student? Go for a walk, throw a football, do some yoga. You’ll feel the difference immediately!
2. Have a plan
Creating and following a plan helps schedule your student’s time, and it gives a clear, written account of what needs to be done. As students get spring fever, they’re much more likely to forget some of the routines that helped them be successful in the fall or winter. They get tired of school and find it easy to revert back to bad habits. If you’re uncertain what routines your student has benefitted from in previous semesters, contact your mentor for guidance.
3. Over-communicate
We practice this all the time at Stride, you use this as adults in your work and your relationships, and this applies to your students as well: over-communicate. Help your student communicate with their teachers, with you, and with their mentor. Over-communicating helps students, parents, and teachers be clear on the student’s status in every class, and it opens up conversations about what they should keep up or be doing differently. Over-communicating leads to no surprises at the end of the semester - everyone knows what’s going on.
We’re getting close to crunch time, let’s solve any issues before we’re there. These are not fool-proof ways to “solve” anxiety, but continuing to incorporate these practices consistently will help alleviate some of the anxiety that both you and your student might be feeling!