Though summer is just beginning, the upcoming school year actually isn’t that far away. And as kids look ahead to August, there may be much on their minds. Even changes that a child is excited about (like the shift from elementary to middle school or the big step from middle school to high school) can bring up a host of feelings for kids and their parents.
This week on KDKA-TV’s Talk Pittsburgh, The Grable Foundation’s executive director (and parent of two) Gregg Behr spoke with co-hosts Heather Abraham and Boaz Frankel during the show’s Parent Panel segment. Behr, co-author of “When You Wonder, You’re Learning: Mister Rogers’ Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids,” has one child entering middle school and the other entering high school this fall. So he and his wife (Kidsburgh director Yu-Ling Cheng-Behr) have been thinking a lot about the importance of supporting their daughters as they navigate these changes.
The shift to middle school, Behr said, can be “as awkward as we remember it, because middle school are those identity-building years.”
And the middle school transition can be an adjustment for parents, as well. ”The communications, for example, from the teacher don’t go to the parents first. It goes to the sixth- or seventh-grader.” So the generic question “what did you do at school today?” no longer suffices. Instead, Behr says, parents have to ask “very specific questions to grab that information from your kids, because they’re the ones getting it.”
For this advice and much more, don’t miss this interview:
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