Back-to-school rituals for connection
Communicating love, affirmation, and warmth in small-but-mighty ways
Like so many of you, my attention has turned to all things back to school. We’re getting in the rhythm of Annie’s new preschool’s procedures (she started back last week!), shopping for school supplies, and planning our back-to-school dinner and back-to-school TTT. In the midst of new markers, new wake-up times, and figuring out all the school notification apps, I think there’s something else that deserves a little intentional thought: school-day rituals for connection.
Like many of you, my kids attend school outside the home. I love and trust their teachers and their schools, and I’m so grateful to partner with them to care for our kids as they grow. I also want to surround our kids’ time away from us with reminders of who they are, what’s true, and what it means to be a member of our family. There are, of course, grand ways to do this, but sometimes it’s the small, consistent ones that matter the most — and that’s what we’re focusing on today.
In a recent newsletter, Meredith Miller defined rituals as “the small ways we infuse affirmation, connection, and warmth into our ordinary days” and I just love that definition. She pointed out that, according to at least one major, robust study (300 families over 35 years!) family warmth supports long-term faith transmission more than any other relational factor.
As a person of faith, I’m delighted by this, but even if you’re not, I would guess that familial warmth aids in passing on other values, too. Whatever it is that you hope to pass on to your kids, a warm and loving relationship can help.
So how can we communicate warmth and connection in and around our kids’ school days? Here are a few suggestions from our family life…