If your child is returning to school, they may be feeling anxious about going back. Here is a way you can them, even when you’re not there.
Who is Rob Biddulph?
Rob Biddulph is the official illustrator for World Book Day and has helped children draw their way through the pandemic with his #DrawWithRob videos.
Rob also found his drawing skills helped when his daughter was feeling anxious about starting school. His daily messages on sticky notes helped her to feel ed and confident each day and became a nice habit.
In this video, Rob explains how you can try something similar…
How lunchbox notes helped my child feel less anxious about school
Rob: I did a drawing for her on a sticky note, every single day whilst she was at primary school. In fact, do you know what? I have lots of them here.
Rob: Hi everyone my name is Rob Biddulph and I am a children’s author and illustrator. And I am here today to talk to you a little bit about how to deal with a child who is stressed or anxious about going back to school. Cause it can be a really stressful time, a really anxiety-inducing time. Not just for the children but for the parents as well, and I know this from experience.
Rob: So I’m going to tell you what I did to kind of help my daughter when she was starting at school. My daughter Poppy was very worried about staying at school for her lunch. She was just worried about missing us and all that kind of thing. So a friend of ours said to me why don’t you just draw her a little picture, on a little sticky note and put it into her packed lunch box so that when she opens her lunch there’s a little note from you that will kind of make her feel a bit better? And I thought that’s a really brilliant idea, and it worked like a dream you know she was absolutely fine and she came home that day actually and she said, ‘Daddy what are you going to draw for me tomorrow?’ I was like, oh well you know I thought this was a one-time-only deal but okay fine so I drew another picture for her the next day and then the next day, in fact she left primary school to go to secondary school last year and I did a drawing for her on a sticky note every single day while she was at primary school.
Rob: There we go lots and lots of these drawings and as you can see they were kind of getting more and more elaborate as I carried on doing them but they became something that she really relied on. She really looked forward to seeing what the drawings were every day. And I think the important thing was that it was a connection between me and her and it just gave her that little, kind of, slice of home at school and it just helped really quell that anxiety and that stress.
Rob: Now I’m not saying that you need to do a drawing like that every single day, but I think some kind of message to your children can be something that’s really, really useful - really easy to do. Maybe you just write a little poem or just a little message that just says hello from Mummy, from Daddy you know, or you could write a message on their banana that might be fun, or on their sandwich bag, so just a little sign that you are thinking of them can be really, really helpful for both of you I think and I really hope this helps if you do have an anxious child I’m sure it will and good luck with everything and I’ll see you again very soon!
ing your child through their back to school anxiety
We asked mental health charity Young Minds about the impact of this way of ing your child. The manager of their Parents Helpline, Stevie Goulding said:
“During times of uncertainty where young people’s worries and anxieties may be heightened, ive messages from parents or family can be really important – it can be really reassuring for young people to know that their parents are thinking of them, particularly at times where they feel unsettled. Whether it’s a daily note in their lunch box, or a message in a compliments jar, little messages of can help to instil hope in young people that no matter how tough things may be, they can get through whatever challenges they’re facing.
“It’s also important to designate a time to talk through worries and concerns with your child. Try to embed this into your daily routine, and end the conversations on a positive note, keeping in mind things to look forward to or good things that have happened during the day.”
If you’d like more advice on how to talk to your child about their mental health, visit the Young Minds site.
- it's all about the message and the connection you are making with your child, so don't worry if you don't think you can draw - the main thing is to get them to feel you're with them, via notes and words.But if you do want to draw something - Rob has kindly provided us with a little extra - this draw-along video showing a simple way to draw your own ive dinosaur:
How to draw a dinosaur note for your child
Rob: So I thought I’d show you something very quick that you can draw on a sticky note for your little one. We’re going to draw a little Gregosaurus, a little baby stegosaurus from my first book Dinosaur Juniors, and it was also the first ‘Draw with Rob’ video I drew, but it’s a vey simple one.
Rob: What you do, is you start with a little U shape at the bottom of your sticky note then we’re going to turn left and we’re going to curve up and around like that, then we’re going to go left again and we’re going to curve up and around but this time a little bit higher, like that. Curve back around go all the way along the top, stop about there. Turn around again head to the bottom of your page.
Rob: You might need to pause this video if you want to copy exactly what I do cause I’m going quite quickly. Then were going to turn around we’re going to head off uphill, change our minds, do a u turn and go back to where we started. So, we end up with a shape like that.
Rob: Draw another U shape next to that first one that we drew. Then draw a great big circle here like that, with a dot in the middle, and we’ve woken up our little stegosaurus. Give them a little eyebrow there, give them a little mouth in that corner there, little smiley mouth. We’re going to add a nostril here, this is how I do a nostril you do a circle like that and a little swirl coming out. We’re going to add a little arm so another U shape slightly at an angle, with just three little lines coming off it. Add three little lines to each of these feet like that for claws.
Rob: Easy-peasy so far. Now stegosaurus’, they have the plates that go around their back, so we’re going to draw, just draw a diamond shape like that right in the middle of the head, then I want you to draw six more - one, two, three, getting gradually smaller, four, five, six round to there and just add three little lines in the middle of each one coming from back of the dinosaur like that. Add four little sort of U shapes like that to the end of tail and then just a few little dots and spots and circles just around the back area of our little dinosaur just so that that suggests a little bit of sort of dinosaur skin texture.
Rob: There we go, and then because our sticky note we want to say ‘hello’ to our children when they open their lunchbox, just say something like, ‘enjoy your lunch’, like that. And then draw a little V shape like that and a circle around the text and there you go a little voice bubble - ‘Enjoy your lunch’. Then maybe down here you could write, ‘Love, Daddy’ or Mummy or whatever your name is and there we go.
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