{"id":15391,"date":"2018-01-04T15:35:15","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T13:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/responsive.jozikids.co.za\/zaparents\/?p=15391"},"modified":"2022-06-21T10:49:37","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T08:49:37","slug":"helping-kids-face-new-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/parenting\/positive-parenting\/helping-kids-face-new-beginnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping kids face new beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: revert; color: initial;\">Although our kids are often spontaneous, creative and highly adaptable, unfortunately, not all new situations are as exciting for your child as you would hope or like them to be.\u00a0 Sometimes when you think they\u2019ll be thrilled with starting \u2018big\u2019 school, yet actually they may need more support than you realised.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It helps to remember that because children are still developing, they are more vulnerable to any big change (i.e. like starting \u2018big\u2019 school, moving homes, cities, the birth of a sibling). \u00a0Big changes (especially if not prepared for) may easily show up in negative behaviours and\/or affect their emotional security (foundation).\u00a0 By understanding this, there are a few simple things you can do to help them adjust to the change &#8211; keeping their foundation secure and their self-esteem flourishing.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Top tips for new beginnings<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>prepare them in advance<\/strong>: tell, show and answer questions as much as possible before the change; include as much visual and physical preparation (e.g. show photos or take them to see the new home, school in advance)<\/li>\n<li><strong>make them feel important<\/strong> \u2013 include them in planning, helping them feel special and worthy<\/li>\n<li><strong>anticipate their mixed feelings<\/strong> &#8211; around the change (i.e., it&#8217;s OK to feel excited and nervous; happy and sad; loving and jealous)<\/li>\n<li><strong>answer their questions about the future <\/strong>\u2013 children are often unsure what to expect and end up guessing or stressing unnecessarily<\/li>\n<li><strong>check for concerns<\/strong> &#8211; &#8220;what might be the hardest for you about this?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>encourage sharing of all feelings and concerns<\/strong> &#8211; even casually while you&#8217;re driving in the car, at dinner or bed time before and after the change<\/li>\n<li><strong>be available and watch them closely<\/strong> &#8211; after the &#8216;beginning&#8217; has happened, really listen to them, be responsive to their needs and regularly check how they&#8217;re feeling about the change (over the next days and weeks)\u200b<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Important to consider:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>starting a new phase at school<\/strong> &#8211; often creates nervousness about performance; new teachers; and friendship concerns<\/li>\n<li><strong>birth of a sibling &#8211; <\/strong>youngsters often feel that a new sibling may affect their importance in the family<\/li>\n<li><strong>moving &#8211; <\/strong>to a new home, even though it may be a better one, can be very unsettling; moving cities or countries is naturally a much bigger change needing far more emotional preparation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>remarriage of a parent<\/strong>&#8211; isn&#8217;t always easy to accept, adjusting to &#8216;blended families&#8217; often takes a lot of time, patience and consistent reassuring of both parents&#8217; love (especially if it happens within two years after the parents\u2019 divorce)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It also helps to remember that in general, younger children need more repetition (in words) to help prepare them for something new, whereas older children often need more time and advance warning.\u00a0\u00a0 By creating a special \u201cceremony\u201d together with the top tips above, you will be marking the \u2018beginning\u2019 in a great and meaningful way.\u00a0 With a little bit of effort this often makes a wonderful difference to how your kids experience any new event, rite of passage or big change.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Note: If you enjoyed this article, and would like to stay updated with more, you can:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Subscribe to our free weekly Jozikids\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/member-registration\/\"><em>newsletter<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0 for parents in Gauteng<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Like us on <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jozikids.co.za\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Facebook<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>Follow us on\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/jozikids?igshid=1n8cwedrewul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Instagram<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It helps to remember that because children are still developing, they are more vulnerable to any big change (i.e. like starting \u2018big\u2019 school, moving homes, cities, the birth of a sibling).  Big changes (especially if not prepared for) may easily show up in negative behaviours and\/or affect their emotional security (foundation).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":352023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-positive-parenting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}