School provides a wide selection of rain to help our children learn coping skills. A great conversation to have as school gets going is what some of the normal “rain” might be this year, emphasis on normal. Not all these things will happen to every child, but every child is likely to face some of these challenges.
What this conversation does is helps them to expect some level of adversity instead of being shocked when it happens. This can help them feel less like victims in these challenging situations. Once you have gone through a few examples and your child understands what you mean by rain, ask them what at school feels like rain to them?
Share a few things that felt like rain to you in school. Explain that mixed in with all the sunny days, some of these rainy days are normal and expected.
Here are some examples I use:
- Friends being unkind
- Feeling left out
- Strict teachers
- Pressure from teachers/coaches
- Making mistakes
- Not doing as well on a test as you hoped
- Having trouble learning something new
- Meeting new people
Featured image by Annie Spratt on Unsplash