Submitted by Melissa, St Louis

My child is already having a hard time at school. How can I help her adjust?

Answered by Andrea Evans , Savvy Source Parenting Editor

School is a whole new set of rules and procedures mandated by new grown-ups, their teachers. Most parents have some rules at home and strive mightily to convince their children to abide by them. How many times, for example, have you advised your kids to wash their hands before eating? Well, to manage a group of preschoolers, teachers certainly need to employ a set of rules. Just getting the kids from the classroom to the playground can involve many new processes: stand in line, hold hands, wait until the teacher counts all of the children to make sure that everyone is accounted for before you run off to the swings and slides. At school, children have to learn to appreciate their teachers' role and how to execute all of these procedures and then how to balance the new rules with what you teach at home. Don't be surprised if your daughter challenges you by saying, "But teacher Delia taught us a different way to do X, Y,or Z." School forces children to learn how to integrate different ideas about doing things. Becoming familiar with a whole new set of procedures takes time and patience, and some kids do it faster than others. Over time, all kids usually come to understand the rhythm of the classroom and how to sync it with the rhythm at home.