New school years can be challenging for both parents and children. New classroom and school expectations can be exciting, yet intimidating. My oldest found this to be particularly difficult after
transferring from a school that had approximately 15 students per grade to a school that had three classes per grade with roughly 25 students in each classroom.
An aspect that is sometimes overlooked when transitioning between half day kindergarten and a full day first grade is the lunchtime routine.
After finishing lunch, my son was required to navigate his way to recess through crowded halls. He did not eat fast enough to join his friends when they were done. This created some anxiety for him. This is where both my “mama” and “Speech Language Pathologist” hats came into play. The mama in me felt sad that he was having trouble learning the ropes of school lunch time. My Speech Language Pathologist side decided it was time to help my child how I might help a student of mine at a different school. By the end of the week, the school let me join my son for lunch. I have to admit that I was worried that joining my son for lunch would embarrass him. I was wrong. My son and his friends were excited that I was there. I took this opportunity to sneakily take pictures with a smart phone of my son going through the lunch process. We started and ended in the classroom. At the end of the day, I compiled and labeled the pictures using a photo editing program. We call this a “social story” in my “professional world,” but as you can see it does not take a professional to create one. Over the next few days we reviewed the lunch routine by looking at the pictures. He no longer struggled with lunch time at his new school.
A few years have passed now. He mentioned this first grade lunch time memory the other day. He is in the fifth grade this year. He now loves bringing a lunch from home, and having time to play with his friends at lunch recess.
