With the new school year around the corner, your little love may be preparing for their first day. Starting school can be very exciting for your mini scholar, but it might also cause them to feel nervous. A combination of unfamiliar faces, surroundings, routines, and guidelines, along with separation from caregivers can create uncertainty and overwhelm in children.
Here, to help your own cutie prepare for classroom adventures, friendships, learning, and laughter, we outline some bear-y sweet ways to make the step into school more enjoyable, fun, and relaxed.
Share stories about school and friendship
To help little ones feel more at ease with the idea of school, introduce the concept of classrooms to your child through the eyes of their favourite storybook characters. For example, you could tell them lively tales where BABY born Bear goes to a pretend school, makes new friends, and learns wonderful things.
Let them help with the new-school shop
Starting school is a big step, but cool new things can make it super exciting. By involving your tot in the new-school shop, you can help them feel prepared and ready for their new adventure. Let them pick out a fun backpack, lunch box, and pencil case with their favourite characters or designs. BABY born Bear can even help your little one learn how to get dressed in their new school clothes. Their cuddly cute friend can move his head, arms, and legs, making it easy for new starters to practice dressing him in all BABY born outfits. He even has his own dinky BABY born Bear Backpack to bring along for day one!
Roleplay the school day
Before school starts, plan some pretend-play scenarios with your little one to help familiarise them with social situations in the classroom. Through imaginative roleplay, children are already embarking on their journey, exploring all kinds of school scenarios without being limited by the physical world. Here is a fun and educational roleplay you can act out in advance:
- While your tot may not have school friends right now, BABY born Magic Girl and Boy make the perfect playmates to practise with. Let BABY born represent your little one, then introduce them to BABY born Bear to help them learn how to make friends.
- Tell your mini one that BABY born Magic is feeling nervous for their first day of school tomorrow. “What if no one likes me?” they ask (and can even cry real tears).
- Have BABY born Bear comfort BABY born, saying, “I’ll be your friend, and we can do it together, and practise making friends!”
- Next, help BABY born and BABY born Bear get ready for school. Make it exciting – asking your new starter what they will need. A cute bag? Packed lunch? New shoes?
- Time to go! How are you going to get to school? If you’re walking, you could help your little one put on their BABY born Bear backpack. If you’re taking the car, practice putting BABY born in the BABY born car seat. If you’re really adventurous, you can even take a magical ride to school on My Cute Horse (in the world of imagination, anything is possible!).
- You could set up a pretend classroom, perhaps using toys or teddies as classmates, and practise having BABY born and BABY born Bear saying hello to new friends. Maybe you could give a school buddy a friendship bracelet that comes with BABY born dolls.
- The wonderful thing about BABY born Bear is that he can share all of BABY born’s accessories, providing the perfect opportunity to teach your tot about sharing toys with friends, and practising this with pretend-play.
Be sure to comfort your child if they raise any questions of their own, or roleplay any scenarios they may ask about.
Bring bear along for the big adventure!
Ready for the first day? How exciting! By now, with pretend play and plenty of encouragement from BABY born Bear, your teeny fresh-starter will be confident in their new well-rehearsed scenarios. Whenever they’re nervous, taking their best bear friend along for the adventure can help reassure them their trusty companion is by their side.
Make learning fun
If your child is worried about facing a classroom challenge, BABY born Bear makes the perfect problem-solving buddy. For example, if they’re resistant to reading or writing practice, they sure won’t be when you ask them to show their best bear friend how to do it! Together, they can practise homework, and figure out solutions with confidence. We have plenty of educational play ideas to make learning fun, including these cool handwriting practice sheets to print out and practise.
Going to the toilet at school can be different to going at home. BABY born dolls that wee can also be used to practise important potty-training scenarios before they head off to school. Explore pretend potty play ideas, or learn more about learning through imaginative play.
