First day back to school 2024: Parents take note

First day back to school 2024: Parents take note

Ah, the stories some parents could tell...

Excited school kids running on field wearing uniforms
Excited school kids running on field wearing uniforms/iStock/monkeybusinessimages

In an ideal world, all kids would be excited about their first day at school. 

But that was surely not the case on Wednesday as the majority of school kids around South Africa returned to school for the year 2024.

Some kids were brave and held back their tears, others couldn't help but shed some tears, and some blended in as if they had done this before. Each group were heroes regardless of their responses to their first day back to school. 

While all of this was going on, the subject of sharing your child's experience on their first day back came into the spotlight.

For context, watch the below news report from earlier this week. Courtesy of TikTok

@the_scent_central #backtoschool2024 #departmentofeducation #SAMA28 #pretoriatiktok #capetowntiktok #northerncapetiktok #johannesburgtiktok #limpopotiktok #easterncapetiktok #northwesttiktokers #mpumalangatiktok ♬ original sound - The Scent Central

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While we understand how exciting it is to share this milestone moment on social media, we are also cognisant of the dangers involved in sharing this information. 

This is why we wanted to just share the overall sentiment of some of the parents instead of the actual videos. 

Here are some stories that parents shared online:

Many parents collectively shared how they didn't expect this day to come so soon and as #Grade1 trended, we saw many kids on social media starting 'big school'. 

The mom of Lwandile posted a video of her going to school like a pro. She was happy to roll her wheelie school bag to school, sit at her new desk, and play at the playground. 

She was brave and blended in with her new surroundings. But as you might've experienced, this was not the case for all kids. 

One mom shared how her son was happy to go to school on his first day of Grade 1, up until his new teacher asked him to come into his new classroom. She came back to the post to share that he did better the day after. Even though he had to be carried into class, he didn't cry or fight her about going to school. In the end, he said he enjoyed class. 

It's not easy seeing your babies struggle with adapting to something new and different. After all, we are adults and we also struggle with change as well. 

These first couple of days and weeks will be challenging but as parents, we need to encourage and motivate our kids to stay the course. Talk to them about your school days and how different things were. 

Speak to them about friendship and get them excited about all the joys that come with going to school.

Happy Class of 2024!

Carol podcasts
East Coast Radio

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Image Courtesy of iStock/monkeybusinessimages

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