Schools and nurseries are seeing children returning after months of staying at home with their families. They’ll be socialising again with their peers, their extended family members and friends. Socialising is an important part of every child’s development but making the adjustment after so many months at home is daunting for kids and parents too. Pom-Bear, known for its light and tasty snacks, have created the Pom-Bear & Pals Guide to help parents rebuild their children’s social confidence. (This post is sponsored by Pom-Bear.)
We enlisted the help of top parent influencers with children to see how they used the Pom-Bear & Pals Guide to help their children prepare for reconnecting with friends and starting back at school. Here’s what worked for them.
Teddy Bear’s Picnic
[email protected] laid on a simple Teddy Bear’s Friend’s picnic using tips from the Guide. The premise: Get her daughter to open up about any fears she may have about going back to school. Cuddly picnic guests provide a great mouthpiece for younger children to articulate and talk through any anxieties. Get them to name their teddies after their friends — they can talk about what they like best about each of them and what they’re looking forward to doing together.
Louise @Messy Little Monster and her family used the picnic opportunity to think and talk about friends and family they haven’t seen for a while and how that makes them feel. It’s made even more fun by enjoying Pom-Bear snacks on the picnic!
Teacher’s treasure hunt
Finding Roisin reintroduced the idea of ‘back to school’ with a role playing game of ‘Teacher’ in the garden. Her son’s assignment for the other children? A fun Pom-Bear treasure hunt of course!
Unleash the dragon
Karen from Our Tiny Diaries showed how her children got stuck into a dressing up and role-playing as part of their preparation for socialising again. ‘When this imaginary dragon decided to steal Jonah’s pack of Pom-Bear snacks, there was an all-out battle,’ she says. The look on their faces show how successful this activity was.
Meeting friends outdoors
Like many of us, Kachi Tila @kacheetee has been helping her son prepare for being around other children at school again by meeting up with friends at a local play area. Meeting outside at a playground is a gentle way for children to get used to being around together again. It’s also a great way to let off steam and interact with each other freely.
Dressing up and role play
Putting on a mask or a costume can give children the confidence to talk about things they might otherwise have been too shy to broach. Shell and the Littles had great fun dressing up in these superhero masks for a socially distanced walk where they discussed how school will be different this year. They chatted about class bubbles and how exciting it will be to see their friends again.
Balance active play & downtime
An expert child psychologist in the Pom-Bear & Pals Guide encourages parents to balance active play — with kids competing, sharing, and cooperating — with quiet time for relaxing. Ria Alema takes her two boys out for sliding, climbing and jumping, and doesn’t forget to pair that with time for snacks.
Pom-Bear is perfect for families to take along. The individual bags are great for packed lunches or after-school playdates in the park. It’s light, fun and tasty, and suitable for little ones as it contains no artificial colours or flavours, is gluten-free and has under 100 calories per bag.
Let us know your tips on settling kids back into school/nursery post-lockdown.
More tips on building children’s confidence
5 ways to help build your child’s confidence post-lockdown #sponsored
Back-to-school tips for happy kids
5 tips for when your child starts nursery
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This guide has been so helpful for getting the kids ready for back to school in a fun and supportive way. I’ve been anxious about them settling in over the last few days but I think using this guide helped them feel more confident about the change and so far it’s going well!
We’ve really enjoyed doing some of the activities from the guide and it’s helped start conversations with the kids about the new normal in a fun way x
It was such a handy guide! We loved all of the examples and it helped with getting back and meeting with friends again.