Helping families manage June
June is a busy month for parents and kids. Here are tips to help them cope. Credit: iStock
Many people would say December is the most stressful month of the year, with all the holiday planning and parties and presents.
They're probably not parents.
A parent of a school-age child might instead name June as the most anxiety-producing 30 days of the calendar year. At the very least, it would come in a close second.
The myriad end-of-the-year obligations include dance recitals and band concerts, gifts to buy or make for teachers and bus drivers, last-day-of-school parties and field days. Some after-school day-care programs end before the finish of the school year as the centers transition to summer programs, leaving parents scrambling to patch up child-care coverage at the same time school days are shortening to half days.
For high schoolers, there are finals and Regents exams and proms and graduations. For parents sending their kids to sleep-away camp, there's the purchasing of summer clothes and the packing. Often, all these activities entail increased expenses this month.
"Parents are bombarded at this point with natural endings of school and beginning a summer plan," says Laurie Zelinger, an elementary-school psychologist in the Oceanside School district. "There's a lot to do in a short amount of time."
Here are suggestions from experts on how to get through the juggling in June:
FOR YOUNGER KIDS
Plan ahead
"The one thing that always boggles my mind about some families is the 'last minute,'" says Michele Rosner, who, as owner of Ella Marie School of Dance in Hicksville, has seen the families that remain calm and the ones that are frantic during the dance recital season. "Don't take the costume out of the bag on the morning of dress rehearsal and realize, 'I need a headpiece.'"
Rosner suggests sitting down with the calendar, mapping out events for the rest of the month and making sure you have everything needed for each one. She's in the same boat -- her daughter, 8, is in dance recitals, and her son, 11, has baseball all-star games.
Enlist the class mom for gifts
"I end up bowing to that pressure and getting a little something for everyone," says Denise Schipani, a Huntington Station mother of two who wrote "Mean Moms Rule: Why Doing the Hard Stuff Now Creates Good Kids Later."
"Try to prevail on the class mom to have everybody chip in. One less thing I have to do. Slip my 10 dollars in the envelope and I'm done." Schipani has two children, in second and fourth grades.
Prepare kids for change
Juann Watson is a therapist in Valley Stream -- and she has two children, ages 16 and 4. She talks to her young son about how he won't be seeing the friends he's had all year and built relationships with. "Keep them informed," Watson advises. "They get a little bit confused."
Make summer work for you
Schipani says when she has to choose a program for her children, she chooses what works best for her. Obviously, the program has to be a good one. But beyond that, she asks herself: "Is it easy for me to get to? Does it work for me? Then it works for them."
If you're behind on sleep-away packing, try these suggestions from Arlene Streisand, owner of Camp Specialists.com, a Jericho-based free service that helps families choose camps: Have a packing list; buy stick-on labels online to make labeling easier; hit Target and Walmart for the best deals. "Stop worrying and comparing your stuff with everyone else's; the kids will share," Streisand says.
FOR OLDER KIDS
Help budget time
High school students have a lot of independent requirements, such as finals and state Regents tests. Sean Feeney, principal of the eighth through 12th grades at the Wheatley School in the East Williston school district, suggests guiding your child in making a study plan that includes a checklist of what needs to be accomplished each day, such as what chapters or review sheets need to be covered, and helping him or her stick to the schedule.
"Putting that in black and white on a checklist, whether it's a physical one or an electronic one, is a big step in organizing your time," Feeney says. Encourage kids to form study groups to help keep them on task, and carpool with other parents to get kids back and forth to formal review sessions.
Talk about money now
To prepare for next June, talk about what expenses may come up for proms or graduations or senior trips, and encourage your child to take ownership of earning some of that money this summer, suggests Don Sinkfield, a mental health counselor in Valley Stream.
FOR EVERYONE
Build in time for relaxation -- and sleep
"They do need some down time with you," therapist Watson says. And make sure everyone gets enough sleep -- especially older kids who may be staying up late to study and getting up super early for school.
