When my kids hit the terrible twos, I consoled myself with how blissful life would be once they started school. They’d return home from a day chock-full of learning, jabbering about their adventures. I’d trade them a plate of freshly baked cookies for a pile of A+ papers. They’d gobble; I’d gloat. That’s it.
It didn’t cross my mind that the reality of my kids’ schooling would make the terrible twos seem like a spa treatment. Maybe it should have: As an elementary school teacher myself, I’d seen scores of otherwise sane moms and dads transformed into neurotic disasters over the course of a 10-minute discussion about their child’s report card. I just didn’t think it would happen to me.
Now that my kids have been in grade school for a while, I’ve learned what types of situations can make — or break — the school year. And along the way, I discovered four little secrets that can transform beginning-of-the-school-year angst (mine and theirs) into a road map for success. Follow these steps, and your child will be well on his way to a happy new year.
