Back to school without burnout: 10 practical strategies to ease the transition
While new pencils and backpacks can spark excitement, the return to structure after summer's freedom can also stir up stress—for both kids and parents. In fact, 70 percent of parents say back-to-school is more stressful than the holidays. Shifting sleep schedules, increased academic demands, new social dynamics, and evolving expectations can feel overwhelming. But with intention, consistency, and community, families can establish a smoother transition into the school year. Here are ten meaningful strategies to help your family return to find your balance and prevent burnout.
1. Say goodbye to summer
Before diving into what's next, pause to look back. Reflecting on summer's highs can offer important clues about what your child values and how they've grown. Was it the beach trip, the camp memory, or that deep belly laugh you all shared that one day? These insights can shape your routines and rituals for the upcoming year. Invite your child to identify what they loved and learned. Maybe it's a new hobby, independence gained, or a fun weekly ritual. Celebrate how they've changed and use that growth to anchor their confidence for what's ahead.
2. Start the shift
Instead of flipping from summer to school mode overnight, ease into it with gradual shifts in sleep and wake times, meal routines, and screen use. Start practicing your school day flow a few days, or even weeks, in advance. This can reduce resistance, confusion, and stress on the actual first day.
3. Ground yourself in familiarity
Even if it's a location, grade, or experience, not everything is unfamiliar. Maybe your child is returning to the same school, familiar friends, or neighborhood. Perhaps you have learned lessons from years past, even if your kiddo is stepping into kindergarten. The blind hope is often to offer a blank slate at the new year, but being aware of these familiar challenges can help you be mindful and supportive in the months to come. If more things feel new than not, can you create a sense of familiarity?If your child is entering a new school, see if you can visit the building together, meet teachers early, or practice the route. These small steps can offer big comfort.
4. Prioritize healthy habits
Healthy doesn't have to mean perfect. It means identifying what matters most to your family and working on those elements together. Start practicing these habits before school begins so they feel familiar when the schedule tightens. Notice what rhythms worked in the past and build on them. Think of routines as frameworks rather than rigid schedules.
Children who have regular routines at home show better emotional regulation and fewer behavioral issues. The Insight Project objectively measured sleep schedules of 143 six‑year‑olds and found that children with more consistent bedtimes showed significantly stronger emotional self‑regulation and fewer behavioral issues, even under stress, compared to peers whose bedtime varied widely. Consistency in early childhood has longstanding benefits. A longitudinal analysis conducted by the Early Head Start Research & Evaluation Project found that children with consistent early bedtime routines at ages 14–36 months displayed better emotion regulation at age 3 and fewer behavioral problems at age 10. Knowing your anchor times, like when everyone needs to wake up, leave the house, or start homework, can give structure without pressure. Routines that support sleep, nutrition, and connection form the bedrock of emotional and academic resilience
5. Lean into family rituals
While sleep is a critical component, healthy routines encompass so much more. A 2024 review in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry summarized decades of research showing that predictable family routines are consistently linked to improved emotional development, cognitive outcomes, and reduced mood volatility across childhood into adolescence. Muniz, Silver, & Stein assessed the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort of almost nine thousand children and found that engagement in common family routines such as dinners, storytelling, singing, and play doubled the odds of high social‑emotional health. These findings encourage us to leave space for joy in our family rituals. Maybe it's morning music, a daily affirmation, or a secret handshake. Weekly rituals like a Sunday evening reset, a 'Sunset' if you will, can help everyone reflect on the past week, review what's ahead, and stay connected from week to week.
6. Cultivate open communication.
Create open spaces for communication with the primary intention of connection. In a systematic review by Lloyd and colleagues, open communication between parents and children was strongly associated with better self-esteem, lower anxiety, and lower depression. Many parents see themselves as an open space for their children but may not pause to think about what makes them so certain. Do you connect with your child with a vendetta or only for serious concerns? When your child tries to connect do you make space for them? How so? Would your child be worried to share something challenging with you, and perhaps could they fear your response and avoid the topic altogether?
Children often express their concerns not in words, but in behavior. Being aware of who they are and staying attuned to their presence, especially during transitions, can help you catch early signs of stress. When genuine connection is fostered, it makes it easy for you to sense your child's needs and it also makes them feel more comfortable to come to you for help.
Dr. Ann Shillingford-Butler, Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida, promotes open communication with children in the back-to-school process. While the content of the discussion may vary per developmental level, Dr. Shillingford-Butler encourages parents to broach topics even with the little ones. As a mother, she recommends using visuals with younger children to support communication. For older children, she suggests creating opportunities for them to share their own hopes and ideas. Create space to talk about what's exciting, uncertain, or scary about the school year. You don't need to fix everything, being present and responsive has value.. When children feel heard, they feel safer, and that leads to deeper trust.
7. Build Your Team
Strong school years are built on strong teams. Of course your team starts at home, but be sure to recruit beyond your front door. Get to know your child's teachers and the school staff. Keep lines of communication open. Most of us can name the teacher who made us feel seen and the one who didn't. That relationship matters.
Support also extends to peers, neighbors, family, and friends. Even if you parent solo, you don't have to do it all by yourself. It's not only about asking for help, it's about offering it. Stay connected and know that the strongest systems are solidified by mutual support, are motivated by a shared mission, and aren't established overnight.
8. Model self-regulation
Children co-regulate with the adults around them. That means your stress, spoken or unspoken, can easily spill over. Don't fall into the irony of letting the stress of curating the perfect back to school routine be the biggest obstacle for your family.
On the other hand, if you invest in your balance, and are open with seeking your ground, the benefits will ripple into your family. Self-care isn't selfish. These essential skills are how you stay grounded so you can show up fully. That might look like taking a few deep breaths before responding, stepping away to regroup, or sharing a small gratitude ritual with your kids. When things go a bit sideways, and they will, remember there is power in how you recover. Model what it looks like to take a break, regroup, to practice grace, and move forward.
9. Check in with inner child
Your own experiences with school, and childhood, can subtly shape how you parent. Were you praised for perfect grades? Were you overlooked, bullied, or unsupported? Do you carry anxieties about this school year that have little to do with your actual child(ren)? Self-awareness can help prevent projection. Notice where your own experiences, fears, or expectations might be influencing how you show up for and respond to your child. Healing those pieces, even little by little, creates space for a more supportive and connected family dynamic.
10. Stay organized with systems that serve you
A smooth school year often comes down to simple systems: Where are the lunchboxes? Who's packing them? When are the groceries bought? These tiny logistics can cause micro-stress that can easily accumulate if they aren't clear. Debra Borenstein, an Executive Function Coach and former school principal, reminds us that 'It's not just academics that set the stage for success—it's executive functioning skills like organization and time management.'
Maybe every single item doesn't need a label, but consider creating systems that serve your family by offering ease to the rush of the routine. Visual schedules, checklists, and shared calendars can be helpful tools. Small things can make a difference. I have multiple visual timers I use personally and professionally. They help me better manage my time independently and I use it with my children as well and I am always amazed how something so small makes such a big difference.
Melanie Tiwari, an educator for over 24 years, encourages parents to get comfortable with the tech.
Many parents don't realize they can see assignments and grades in real time. This access improves support and accountability. Explore the school website to find links for SchoolPay for purchasing PE uniforms, paying for field trips or lab fees and more. So many times students struggle for more than one marking period simply because parents didn't know they could see assignments, grades, announcements and homework in real time. While the technology might seem overwhelming to parents, realizing you have immediate access to everything and multiple ways to reach teachers via phone, email and evn text message ensures a better home-school connection and more support, guidance and accountability for kids learning to navigate the same platforms and help them develop responsibility and independence.
As you gear up for the year ahead, rest assured that your routine doesn't need to be flawless, not on the first day and maybe not ever. It will likely shift across weeks, or even months. That's okay, as a matter of fact it means you're staying attuned to your family and that's more important than any rigid schedule. There is no one-size-fits-all back to school plan. These strategies are not a checklist to enforce: they're tools to help you stay connected and responsive. The most important factor is already in your home: your child. Knowing your child allows you to utilize these strategies.What works for one family may not work for another. A child's unique strengths, needs, and style deserve to be honored. With compassion, intention, and a little creativity, your family can create a school year foundation that supports well-being for each of you.
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Consistently finding lower lithium levels in the brains of people with memory loss amounted to a smoking gun, Yankner said. 'At first, frankly, we were skeptical of the result because it wasn't expected,' said Yankner. But it held up even when they checked samples from other brain banks at Massachusetts General Hospital, Duke and Washington universities. 'We wanted to know whether this drop in lithium was biologically meaningful, so we devised an experimental protocol where we could take lithium selectively out of the diet of mice and see what happens,' Yankner said. When they fed the mice a low-lithium diet, simply dropping their natural levels by 50%, their brains rapidly developed features of Alzheimer's. 'The neurons started to degenerate. The immune cells in the brain went wild in terms of increased inflammation and worse maintenance function of the neurons around them, and it looked more like an advanced Alzheimer patient,' Yankner said. 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Chronic diseases Dementia Getting olderFacebookTweetLink Follow In a major new finding almost a decade in the making, researchers at Harvard Medical School say they've found a key that may unlock many of the mysteries of Alzheimer's disease and brain aging — the humble metal lithium. Lithium is best known to medicine as a mood stabilizer given to people who have bipolar disorder and depression. It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1970, but it was used by doctors to treat mood disorders for nearly a century beforehand. Now, for the first time, researchers have shown that lithium is naturally present in the body in tiny amounts and that cells require it to function normally — much like vitamin C or iron. It also appears to play a critical role in maintaining brain health. In a series of experiments reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, researchers at Harvard and Rush universities found that depleting lithium in the diet of normal mice caused their brains to develop inflammation and changes associated with accelerated aging. In mice that were specially bred to develop the same kinds of brain changes as humans with Alzheimer's disease, a low-lithium diet revved the buildup of sticky proteins that form plaques and tangles in the brains that are hallmarks of the disease. It also sped up memory loss. Maintaining normal lithium levels in mice as they aged, however, protected them from brain changes associated with Alzheimer's. If further research supports the findings, it could open the door to new treatments and diagnostic tests for Alzheimer's, which affects an estimated 6.7 million older adults in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The research provides a unifying theory that helps explain so many of the puzzle pieces scientists have been trying to fit together for decades. 'It is a potential candidate for a common mechanism leading to the multisystem degeneration of the brain that precedes dementia,' said Dr. Bruce Yankner, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, who led the study. 'It will take a lot more science to determine whether this is a common pathway… or one of several pathways,' to Alzheimer's, he added. 'The data are very intriguing.' In an editorial published in Nature, Dr. Ashley Bush, a neuroscientist who directs the Melbourne Dementia Research Center at the University of Melbourne in Australia, said the researchers 'present compelling evidence that lithium does in fact have a physiological role and that normal aging might impair the regulation of lithium levels in the brain.' He was not involved in the study. 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He and his colleagues tested different lithium compounds and found one — lithium orotate — that doesn't bind to amyloid beta. When they gave lithium orotate to mice with signs of Alzheimer's in their brains, these changes reversed: Beta amyloid plaques and tangles of tau that were choking the memory centers of the brain were reduced. Mice treated with lithium were once again able to navigate mazes and learn to identify new objects, whereas those who got placebos showed no change in their memory and thinking deficits. In its natural form, lithium is an element, a soft, silvery-white metal that readily combines with other elements to form compounds and salts. It's naturally present in the environment, including in food and water. Scientists have never fully known how it works to improve mood — only that it does. The original formula for 7Up soda included lithium — it was called 7Up Lithiated Lemon Soda — and touted as a hangover cure and mood lifter 'for hospital or home use.' Some hot springs known to contain mineral water brimming with lithium became sought out wellness destinations for their curative powers. Still, people who take prescription doses of lithium — which were much higher than the doses used in the new study — can sometimes develop thyroid or kidney toxicity. Tests of the mice given low doses of lithium orotate showed no signs of damage. That's encouraging, Yankner said, but it doesn't mean people should try to take lithium supplements on their own. 'A mouse is not a human. Nobody should take anything based just on mouse studies,' Yankner said. 'The lithium treatment data we have is in mice, and it needs to be replicated in humans. We need to find the right dose in humans,' he added. The normal amounts of lithium in our bodies, and the concentrations given to the mice, are small — about 1,000 times lower than doses given to treat bipolar disorder, Yankner notes. Yankner said he hoped toxicity trials of lithium salts would start soon. Neither he nor any of his co-authors have a financial interest in the outcome of the research, he said. The National Institutes of Health was the major funder of the study, along with grants from private foundations. 'NIH support was absolutely critical for this work,' Yankner said. The new research corroborates earlier studies hinting that lithium might be important for Alzheimer's. A large Danish study published in 2017 found people with higher levels of lithium in their drinking water were less likely to be diagnosed with dementia compared with those whose tap water contained naturally lower lithium levels. Another large study published in 2022 from the United Kingdom found that people prescribed lithium were about half as likely has those in a control group to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's, suggesting a protective effect of the drug. But lithium's use in psychiatry caused it to become type cast as therapeutic, Yankner said. 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Consistently finding lower lithium levels in the brains of people with memory loss amounted to a smoking gun, Yankner said. 'At first, frankly, we were skeptical of the result because it wasn't expected,' said Yankner. But it held up even when they checked samples from other brain banks at Massachusetts General Hospital, Duke and Washington universities. 'We wanted to know whether this drop in lithium was biologically meaningful, so we devised an experimental protocol where we could take lithium selectively out of the diet of mice and see what happens,' Yankner said. When they fed the mice a low-lithium diet, simply dropping their natural levels by 50%, their brains rapidly developed features of Alzheimer's. 'The neurons started to degenerate. The immune cells in the brain went wild in terms of increased inflammation and worse maintenance function of the neurons around them, and it looked more like an advanced Alzheimer patient,' Yankner said. The team also found the gene expression profiles of lithium-deficient mice and people who had Alzheimer's disease looked very similar. The researchers then started to look at how this drop in lithium might occur. Yankner said in the earliest stages there's a decrease in the uptake of lithium in the brain from the blood. They don't yet know exactly how or why it happens, but it's likely to be from a variety of things including reduced dietary intake, as well as genetic and environmental factors. The major source of lithium for most people is their diet. Some of the foods that have the most lithium are leafy green vegetables, nuts, legumes and some spices like turmeric and cumin. Some mineral waters are also rich sources. In other words, Yankner said, a lot of the foods that have already proven to be healthy and reduce a person's risk of dementia may be beneficial because of their lithium content. 'You know, oftentimes one finds in science that things may have an effect, and you think you know exactly why, but then subsequently turn out to be completely wrong about why,' he said.
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