Back To School Month

Take a minute to think about the greatest stressors of your life.  You know, the ones where large amounts of chocolate, Valium, or Xanax might have been considered as coping strategies.  Any school related experiences come to mind?  Stress about grades?  Worry about friends and social situations?  Test anxiety?

Ok, so maybe school stress isn't chocolate or Valium worthy, but for many families it certainly ranks right up there.  For parents there's the stress of schedule changes, daily lunch preparation, fees, forms, class disclosures, arranging after-school activities, homework supervision, supply lists, volunteering in classrooms....  It's endless.  For kids there's stress about teachers, rules, friends, recess, locker combinations, getting to class on time, and somehow managing to do all the above while looking cool, calm and collected in order to avoid becoming a target for bullying.

Chocolate anyone?

During the month of September the focus of blog posts will be "Back to School Month." Look for ideas through the month about managing the stress of school challenges, as well as information about help for students who have difficulty in school.  If you know me you know I like to keep it real.  Let's face it; if there was a magic bullet we wouldn't be discussing these issues.  Hopefully sharing ideas and creating dialogue is helpful and a step toward finding solutions.  Feel free to post comments, questions and ideas.  Join the discussion!