July 22, 2025 • 13 mins
Back to school season is here and it's time to prepare both parents and children with the confidence needed to navigate this transition successfully. This replay of Episode 2 offers timeless advice for parents at any stage of their school journey.
• Prepare for the busy season by establishing daily routines before school begins
• Create designated spots for backpacks and school papers to stay organized
• Start a keepsakes system for storing and documenting school projects
• Help kindergartners practice eating lunch in 15 minutes and opening food packages
• Trust your child and their teachers, speaking positively about the school experience
• Allow children to "productively struggle" instead of rescuing them from every challenge
• Remember that a child's self-worth isn't tied to their academic performance
• Use the "sandwich method" when correcting mistakes: praise, correction, affirmation
Connect with me on Instagram at confidentlybeautifulpodcast and share this episode with someone in your life who could use a little reminder of just how amazing they already are.
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Connect with Ciera on Instagram @confidentlybeautifulpodcast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ciera (00:03):
you're listening to confidently beautiful with Ciera
a podcast to help you stayconfidently beautiful, because
we all have confidence inside us.
We just need to bring it outand I'm here to show you how
body image, dreams, parenting,style, personality and more here
we cover it all.
Get ready to stay confidentlybeautiful for today's episode.
(00:26):
I hope it's okay with you thatwe are going to go back into the
archives of old episodes.
I am pulling episode number twoand doing a replay.
This episode was all aboutgoing back to school with
confidence, and I think that allof the information in this
episode is just as relevanttoday as it was back then.
Thinking back to when I firstrecorded this episode, I was
(00:46):
just having a brand newkindergartner, and now, as that
kindergartner is about to gointo third grade, I can say that
all of this stuff is still justas valuable for where I am now
in my school journey with mykids as it was back then.
So I hope you can find thisepisode helpful for you, no
matter what stage in school youare in with your kids, and let's
(01:06):
all go back to school with someconfidence.
Hello, and welcome to episodenumber two back to school with
confidence.
I can't even believe that I'msaying back to school.
Don't we just feel like we juststarted summer?
Because I do.
But here we are, back to school.
It is when this airs.
It will be the night beforeschool starts for a lot of kids
(01:29):
in the southern Utah area, whereI am, which is just crazy to me
.
Lucky for me, I still have acouple more weeks because I only
have a kindergartner inpreschool, but even that is just
crazy that it's actually hereand it's coming.
That it's just crazy that it'sactually here and it's coming.
So, with that said, let's justjump right into what I wanted to
(01:50):
talk to you about today, whichis going back to school with
confidence whether it's the mombeing confident or the child
going back and I got to talk tosome really fun people to get
some advice on this and I havesome hopefully really helpful
takeaways.
In the very least, it reallyhelped me as I am going to have
(02:10):
my very, very first elementaryage child in school.
I am entering that new stage inlife, which is just crazy to me
.
Okay, so my number one tip is toprepare for the busy.
I am a list person, a chartperson, all of the things.
(02:32):
That is me to the core,preparing for the busy.
I am taking this last couple ofweeks of summer to just for the
kids what I want to do beforeschool and then what I want to
(03:02):
get done while they're at schooland then what I want to do
after school.
So I think just establishingyour daily routines will really
help as you jump into the busypart of things, to know what to
expect and what to do, becausesometimes, if you're like me,
you might just get frozen andnot be confident in what you
(03:24):
should be doing because you justare overwhelmed with everything
.
So having those daily routines,I think, will be really helpful
.
Another thing that I am workingon is having a designated place
for backpacks and school papers.
I mean, I remember every daywhen my daughter was in
preschool she would come homewith at least one paper, usually
(03:45):
more, and those can stack upand they can get shoved in the
backpack and forgotten.
So I think that having a placeto put the papers is huge.
I remember hearing on anotherpodcast Minivan mamas shout out
to them.
If you know who they are, checkthem out.
I remember I think it was Alexaon minivan mamas and she was
(04:06):
talking about like a place thatshe has for all the school
papers and everyone just comesin the house, they unload their
backpack and they put all oftheir school papers in this one
spot, and that is just genius,because then you can just have
one place to sit there and sortthrough the trash and see all
the handouts and announcementsthat you actually need to pay
attention to.
That your kids are probablygoing to forget to tell you.
So I think have a place forthat and to have a specific
(04:30):
backpack place is probablyextremely helpful.
I'm saying all this having onlyhad a preschooler, but I would
imagine it would be very helpful.
Another thing that I have doneis having like a keepsakes
folder or box that I puteverything in throughout the
year.
This was an awesome suggestionby my daughter's very first
(04:51):
preschool teacher.
I was overwhelmed with all ofthe adorable projects that she
was bringing home and I didn'twant to throw them away because
they were so cute.
But then I had so many.
They just were growing andgrowing.
So what I did over her twoyears of preschool is I had a
box and every cute project thatshe would have, I would write on
the back of it the month andthe year and I would put it in
(05:14):
the box.
She's done with preschool now,so I've taken pictures of
everything and I've put them inmy photos and now the only thing
I need to do is compile theminto a book and then she's going
to have this book and I'vethrown away all the crafts
because I have the pictures ofthem all and I don't need to
keep whatever it is that shemade in preschool, because I
have a picture of it and I canstill remember it.
(05:35):
And that was some really goodadvice.
So get your box or your folderready to just file them as they
come in so you don't have agiant mess at the end of the
school year to have to sortthrough.
So that's preparing for thebusy kind of getting your
routines and your procedures inplace.
The next advice that I have islittle things to prepare your
(05:57):
kindergartner.
So I have a brand newkindergartner, my very first
kindergartner, and I have beenreally trying to think how can I
prepare her to have all dayschool?
She's had two and a half hoursof preschool three days a week,
but she hasn't been at schoolall day long.
That's a long time for a littlegirl to be away from her mom,
(06:19):
or maybe I'm just feeling thatway because I just want to keep
her with me, but I have beenthinking how can I prepare her
and I saw the most genius thingthat I need to share with you
all Busy Toddler.
On Instagram, she shared thebest advice that I had not even
thought of.
She said to have your littlekindergartner practice eating in
(06:39):
15 minutes, to set a timer andhave them practice eating their
lunch before that timer goes off.
I thought that was so smart,because that has been one of my
fears is my child going to eatduring the day?
Is she going to know that sheneeds to actually like eat
quickly and then she's going tohave things that she needs to do
(06:59):
?
So I thought that that was sosmart to have them practice
eating in 15 minutes.
And then the other piece ofadvice that she offered was to
practice opening packages.
So give her whatever I plan topack in her lunch or whatever
the school is probably going tobe providing, and have her
practice opening herself.
I thought that was the bestadvice ever for a new
(07:22):
kindergartner.
Some other things that I got Iasked on my Instagram.
I asked all of my teacherfriends and homeschool mom
friends for their best advicefor sending kids back to school
with confidence, whether it'sadvice for the mom or advice for
the child.
So I just wanted to share someof the things that I got from
(07:43):
these people because I thoughtit was really good.
From a teacher, this was advicefor a mom to send your child to
school and for you to beconfident with that.
This one was so simple but whenshe said it I was like, yes, I
need to let go of some of mycontrol and just be confident in
my child.
(08:03):
All she said was just to trustthem, trust your child, trust
your teacher, be confident thateverything is going to be OK,
that your child is going to beawesome, and trust that the
teachers are going to takereally good care of them.
And so I thought that was thebest advice for a new mom going
(08:25):
into this new experience ofschool, and maybe even for you
seasoned moms who maybe have hadsome kids go, but you always
struggle with a little bit ofconfidence of letting your kids
leave the house for the wholeday.
So I thought that was the bestadvice ever from a teacher.
She also said talk highly ofthe teachers and their school.
So once you find out who theirteacher is, just immediately
(08:46):
start talking highly about thatteacher and about the school
experience in general.
They will copy what you feeland what you do and what you say
.
So if you're talking highly ofthe teacher and of school,
they're going to be excitedabout it.
Some other advice that I gotfrom actually she's a learning
coach.
She's been a teacher but nowshe is in a new position as a
(09:08):
learning coach at an elementaryschool and I loved what she said
, so I'm just going to read itword for word.
She said one thing that I'venoticed in my new role is that
confidence comes when kids areallowed to productively struggle
.
Too quickly we try to jump inand save a child to prevent them
from frustration, which doesn'tenable confidence.
(09:29):
We need to scaffold and helpand pull it away so they can
experience their own struggleleading to success.
Having conversations with achild about doing hard things
and making mistakes is soimportant.
It's also important todemonstrate that as adults we're
imperfect.
(09:50):
Show them our own productivestruggle, apologize and be
vulnerable, which I get is somuch easier said than done.
I seriously loved that adviceso much.
It was so good to remind me tojust let go of some of my
controllingness and to just letthe child experience failure,
(10:13):
experience frustration, and thatwill help them to grow their
confidence.
I thought that was so good.
I got advice from two homeschoolmoms.
One of them she talked aboutSimply On Purpose.
I love her, she is so good.
She's on Instagram Simply OnPurpose.
Her name is Ralphie and sheteaches about sandwiching your
(10:35):
correction.
So this homeschool mom that Italked to, she was referencing
this that Ralphie talks about.
So a sandwich is when you pointout what they did well, you
give them a correction and thenyou praise them for something
about them.
So, for example, maybe theymisspelled a word.
(10:56):
Maybe you say you did so goodwriting your letter so clearly.
This letter is actually at theend of the word instead of in
the middle.
You are so good at writing, orsomething like that.
I don't know, maybe that was aterrible example, but that's
what I thought of as our kidsare going through school that
(11:18):
they will struggle and they willhave challenges as they're
learning, but just as everyonedoes, and that was a really,
really good piece of advice tobuild their confidence.
Another piece of advice that ahomeschool mom said as they're
learning is to bring your childback home to themselves so that
their self-worth isn't solelytied to achievements and
capabilities, acceptance andapproval or praise from others.
(11:41):
So just remind your kids thatthey should be confident just
because they're valuable ashuman beings and they have
self-worth, and that thatself-worth will not change
depending on how well they doacademically or socially or with
school.
It was really interesting tohear all of the things and I was
so, so glad that a lot of myfriends were willing to openly
(12:04):
share their confidencesuggestions with school as we
get back into this back toschool season.
Okay, so there you have it.
There's my back to school withconfidence tips.
Prepare for the busy, do littlethings to help your
kindergartner prepare and beconfident that they will have
the best success, that they canTalk highly.
Trust your kids and help themacademically to know that their
(12:27):
shortcomings are not tied totheir self-worth and that they
can be confident with who theyare, no matter how well they're
doing academically, and I hopethat you have a very good back
to school season.
Can't even believe it.
How many times have I said that?
A lot, but I just can't.
I just can't believe that it'shere.
Thanks for listening.
Connect with me on Instagram@confidentlybeautifulpodcast and
(12:49):
share this episode with someonein your life who could use a
little reminder of just howamazing they already are.
Stay confidently beautiful.
you're listening to confidently beautiful with Ciera
a podcast to help you stayconfidently beautiful, because
we all have confidence inside us.
We just need to bring it outand I'm here to show you how
body image, dreams, parenting,style, personality and more here
we cover it all.
Get ready to stay confidentlybeautiful for today's episode.
(00:26):
I hope it's okay with you thatwe are going to go back into the
archives of old episodes.
I am pulling episode number twoand doing a replay.
This episode was all aboutgoing back to school with
confidence, and I think that allof the information in this
episode is just as relevanttoday as it was back then.
Thinking back to when I firstrecorded this episode, I was
(00:46):
just having a brand newkindergartner, and now, as that
kindergartner is about to gointo third grade, I can say that
all of this stuff is still justas valuable for where I am now
in my school journey with mykids as it was back then.
So I hope you can find thisepisode helpful for you, no
matter what stage in school youare in with your kids, and let's
(01:06):
all go back to school with someconfidence.
Hello, and welcome to episodenumber two back to school with
confidence.
I can't even believe that I'msaying back to school.
Don't we just feel like we juststarted summer?
Because I do.
But here we are, back to school.
It is when this airs.
It will be the night beforeschool starts for a lot of kids
(01:29):
in the southern Utah area, whereI am, which is just crazy to me
.
Lucky for me, I still have acouple more weeks because I only
have a kindergartner inpreschool, but even that is just
crazy that it's actually hereand it's coming.
That it's just crazy that it'sactually here and it's coming.
So, with that said, let's justjump right into what I wanted to
(01:50):
talk to you about today, whichis going back to school with
confidence whether it's the mombeing confident or the child
going back and I got to talk tosome really fun people to get
some advice on this and I havesome hopefully really helpful
takeaways.
In the very least, it reallyhelped me as I am going to have
(02:10):
my very, very first elementaryage child in school.
I am entering that new stage inlife, which is just crazy to me
.
Okay, so my number one tip is toprepare for the busy.
I am a list person, a chartperson, all of the things.
(02:32):
That is me to the core,preparing for the busy.
I am taking this last couple ofweeks of summer to just for the
kids what I want to do beforeschool and then what I want to
(03:02):
get done while they're at schooland then what I want to do
after school.
So I think just establishingyour daily routines will really
help as you jump into the busypart of things, to know what to
expect and what to do, becausesometimes, if you're like me,
you might just get frozen andnot be confident in what you
(03:24):
should be doing because you justare overwhelmed with everything
.
So having those daily routines,I think, will be really helpful
.
Another thing that I am workingon is having a designated place
for backpacks and school papers.
I mean, I remember every daywhen my daughter was in
preschool she would come homewith at least one paper, usually
(03:45):
more, and those can stack upand they can get shoved in the
backpack and forgotten.
So I think that having a placeto put the papers is huge.
I remember hearing on anotherpodcast Minivan mamas shout out
to them.
If you know who they are, checkthem out.
I remember I think it was Alexaon minivan mamas and she was
(04:06):
talking about like a place thatshe has for all the school
papers and everyone just comesin the house, they unload their
backpack and they put all oftheir school papers in this one
spot, and that is just genius,because then you can just have
one place to sit there and sortthrough the trash and see all
the handouts and announcementsthat you actually need to pay
attention to.
That your kids are probablygoing to forget to tell you.
So I think have a place forthat and to have a specific
(04:30):
backpack place is probablyextremely helpful.
I'm saying all this having onlyhad a preschooler, but I would
imagine it would be very helpful.
Another thing that I have doneis having like a keepsakes
folder or box that I puteverything in throughout the
year.
This was an awesome suggestionby my daughter's very first
(04:51):
preschool teacher.
I was overwhelmed with all ofthe adorable projects that she
was bringing home and I didn'twant to throw them away because
they were so cute.
But then I had so many.
They just were growing andgrowing.
So what I did over her twoyears of preschool is I had a
box and every cute project thatshe would have, I would write on
the back of it the month andthe year and I would put it in
(05:14):
the box.
She's done with preschool now,so I've taken pictures of
everything and I've put them inmy photos and now the only thing
I need to do is compile theminto a book and then she's going
to have this book and I'vethrown away all the crafts
because I have the pictures ofthem all and I don't need to
keep whatever it is that shemade in preschool, because I
have a picture of it and I canstill remember it.
(05:35):
And that was some really goodadvice.
So get your box or your folderready to just file them as they
come in so you don't have agiant mess at the end of the
school year to have to sortthrough.
So that's preparing for thebusy kind of getting your
routines and your procedures inplace.
The next advice that I have islittle things to prepare your
(05:57):
kindergartner.
So I have a brand newkindergartner, my very first
kindergartner, and I have beenreally trying to think how can I
prepare her to have all dayschool?
She's had two and a half hoursof preschool three days a week,
but she hasn't been at schoolall day long.
That's a long time for a littlegirl to be away from her mom,
(06:19):
or maybe I'm just feeling thatway because I just want to keep
her with me, but I have beenthinking how can I prepare her
and I saw the most genius thingthat I need to share with you
all Busy Toddler.
On Instagram, she shared thebest advice that I had not even
thought of.
She said to have your littlekindergartner practice eating in
(06:39):
15 minutes, to set a timer andhave them practice eating their
lunch before that timer goes off.
I thought that was so smart,because that has been one of my
fears is my child going to eatduring the day?
Is she going to know that sheneeds to actually like eat
quickly and then she's going tohave things that she needs to do
(06:59):
?
So I thought that that was sosmart to have them practice
eating in 15 minutes.
And then the other piece ofadvice that she offered was to
practice opening packages.
So give her whatever I plan topack in her lunch or whatever
the school is probably going tobe providing, and have her
practice opening herself.
I thought that was the bestadvice ever for a new
(07:22):
kindergartner.
Some other things that I got Iasked on my Instagram.
I asked all of my teacherfriends and homeschool mom
friends for their best advicefor sending kids back to school
with confidence, whether it'sadvice for the mom or advice for
the child.
So I just wanted to share someof the things that I got from
(07:43):
these people because I thoughtit was really good.
From a teacher, this was advicefor a mom to send your child to
school and for you to beconfident with that.
This one was so simple but whenshe said it I was like, yes, I
need to let go of some of mycontrol and just be confident in
my child.
(08:03):
All she said was just to trustthem, trust your child, trust
your teacher, be confident thateverything is going to be OK,
that your child is going to beawesome, and trust that the
teachers are going to takereally good care of them.
And so I thought that was thebest advice for a new mom going
(08:25):
into this new experience ofschool, and maybe even for you
seasoned moms who maybe have hadsome kids go, but you always
struggle with a little bit ofconfidence of letting your kids
leave the house for the wholeday.
So I thought that was the bestadvice ever from a teacher.
She also said talk highly ofthe teachers and their school.
So once you find out who theirteacher is, just immediately
(08:46):
start talking highly about thatteacher and about the school
experience in general.
They will copy what you feeland what you do and what you say
.
So if you're talking highly ofthe teacher and of school,
they're going to be excitedabout it.
Some other advice that I gotfrom actually she's a learning
coach.
She's been a teacher but nowshe is in a new position as a
(09:08):
learning coach at an elementaryschool and I loved what she said
, so I'm just going to read itword for word.
She said one thing that I'venoticed in my new role is that
confidence comes when kids areallowed to productively struggle
.
Too quickly we try to jump inand save a child to prevent them
from frustration, which doesn'tenable confidence.
(09:29):
We need to scaffold and helpand pull it away so they can
experience their own struggleleading to success.
Having conversations with achild about doing hard things
and making mistakes is soimportant.
It's also important todemonstrate that as adults we're
imperfect.
(09:50):
Show them our own productivestruggle, apologize and be
vulnerable, which I get is somuch easier said than done.
I seriously loved that adviceso much.
It was so good to remind me tojust let go of some of my
controllingness and to just letthe child experience failure,
(10:13):
experience frustration, and thatwill help them to grow their
confidence.
I thought that was so good.
I got advice from two homeschoolmoms.
One of them she talked aboutSimply On Purpose.
I love her, she is so good.
She's on Instagram Simply OnPurpose.
Her name is Ralphie and sheteaches about sandwiching your
(10:35):
correction.
So this homeschool mom that Italked to, she was referencing
this that Ralphie talks about.
So a sandwich is when you pointout what they did well, you
give them a correction and thenyou praise them for something
about them.
So, for example, maybe theymisspelled a word.
(10:56):
Maybe you say you did so goodwriting your letter so clearly.
This letter is actually at theend of the word instead of in
the middle.
You are so good at writing, orsomething like that.
I don't know, maybe that was aterrible example, but that's
what I thought of as our kidsare going through school that
(11:18):
they will struggle and they willhave challenges as they're
learning, but just as everyonedoes, and that was a really,
really good piece of advice tobuild their confidence.
Another piece of advice that ahomeschool mom said as they're
learning is to bring your childback home to themselves so that
their self-worth isn't solelytied to achievements and
capabilities, acceptance andapproval or praise from others.
(11:41):
So just remind your kids thatthey should be confident just
because they're valuable ashuman beings and they have
self-worth, and that thatself-worth will not change
depending on how well they doacademically or socially or with
school.
It was really interesting tohear all of the things and I was
so, so glad that a lot of myfriends were willing to openly
(12:04):
share their confidencesuggestions with school as we
get back into this back toschool season.
Okay, so there you have it.
There's my back to school withconfidence tips.
Prepare for the busy, do littlethings to help your
kindergartner prepare and beconfident that they will have
the best success, that they canTalk highly.
Trust your kids and help themacademically to know that their
(12:27):
shortcomings are not tied totheir self-worth and that they
can be confident with who theyare, no matter how well they're
doing academically, and I hopethat you have a very good back
to school season.
Can't even believe it.
How many times have I said that?
A lot, but I just can't.
I just can't believe that it'shere.
Thanks for listening.
Connect with me on Instagram@confidentlybeautifulpodcast and
(12:49):
share this episode with someonein your life who could use a
little reminder of just howamazing they already are.
Stay confidently beautiful.
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