BY NANCY STOOPS

Nancy Stoops M.A., M.F.T Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

The return to school begins very soon and you need to help your children prepare. This is a good time to start having them go to bed a little earlier and to help them get organized.

Make sure to buy them a good notebook with subject dividers, with folders in those dividers to organize their work. Take some time to talk with your child about what worked for them in the last school year, and what they can improve upon this year. Help them set some goals for this year to help make them better students. Also, if your child is starting at a new school, take them to the campus to help them feel comfortable with its layout.

Every year many parents bring their children to me to help them improve in school. I teach them time management skills and we work on not procrastinating. You can help your child with this as well. You can set up a reward system for whenever you see positive changes in them. Time management skills and organizational skills are essential in helping your child succeed in school, and in life in general.

Getting your child to eat a good breakfast and make healthy choices at lunch time is crucial for getting them through the day with the necessary energy to be successful. Besides enough sleep and good nutrition, I feel a multivitamin is very important as well.

Many of these ideas are taught at my free counseling groups. We meet at the Walnut Teen Center every Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. No invitation is needed and everybody is welcome to attend. The address is 21003 La Puente Road in Walnut. Feel free to contact me at (909) 229-0727 if you have any questions. Midnight, the therapy dog, is also there to help!

This article was written by Nancy Stoops, M.A., M.F.T. Nancy is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She runs free family support groups, a group on loss for seniors, and groups for teens. For more information about any of these services feel free to page her at (626) 935-3818. You may also email her at stoopsshecter@earthlink.net. Nancy’s book, “Live, Heal and Grow” is available for purchase at http://www.RoseDogBookstore.com or Amazon.com