Here’s hoping your Thanksgiving included at least one real moment of rest — the kind where time slows down and the only thing on the agenda is debating whether to reheat more pie. Because as soon as the long weekend fades, families are launched right back into one of the most demanding stretches of the school year. December brings its signature blend of big assignments, exams, concerts, rehearsals, holiday events, travel plans, and the kind of end-of-year tiredness that makes both kids and adults want to sleep until January. It’s a lot for anyone, and it’s often the time when managing student stress becomes a real challenge for families.
The good news? With a few thoughtful shifts in how you communicate and plan, you can help reduce school anxiety in kids, create some space for calm, and support your child in navigating the weeks ahead with confidence. In this dispatch, Dr. Mary Corbelli, Uluru’s Director of Parent Communications, shares strategies for helping your family move through this busy, exciting, and overwhelming season with less stress and a lot more support.
1. Help Them Break Down the Workload
The stretch between Thanksgiving and winter break is one of the most academically intense times of the year. Instead of the classic “Why aren’t you studying?” — a question guaranteed to spike academic stress — try opening a more collaborative conversation. Ask something like, “What do you need to do between now and winter break to feel as good as possible heading into vacation?” A question framed this way gives your child some control, which is essential when you’re managing student stress and helping them sort through competing priorities.
Once they name what’s coming up, you can help them transform big, intimidating tasks into smaller, concrete steps. A long-term history project becomes a few manageable action items. Studying for a cumulative test becomes short sessions spaced across several days. This isn’t about adding pressure — it’s about making the workload feel less like a mountain and more like a path they can walk. Naming the chaos, acknowledging their effort, and asking directly, “What do you need from me so you can get there?” can reduce school anxiety in kids and show them they’re not alone in it.
2. Manage Holiday Stress — Especially Your Own
Parents carry a surprising amount of holiday weight: year-end deadlines, logistics, emotional expectations, travel planning, family commitments — all on top of trying to support kids through their academic load. It makes sense that some of that energy leaks into conversations about school. But when your urgency wraps itself around a homework check-in, kids often interpret it as pressure. For some, that pressure becomes perfectionism; for others, it leads to shutdown and friction at home.
One of the most helpful shifts is simply pausing before starting school-related conversations. If you feel overloaded — or if your child already looks stretched thin — you can wait. Pausing isn’t avoidance. It’s regulating yourself so you don’t unintentionally heighten academic stress or contribute to holiday stress for families. A moment of calm can create a more open, grounded conversation later. And when your child sees you model emotional regulation, it becomes a powerful, unspoken lesson in how to manage their own stress too.
3. Protect Your Child’s Valuable Time
In many schools, the last week before break is the academic equivalent of a grand finale. Tests, papers, quizzes, performances, group projects, athletics — everything converges at once. When this overlaps with holiday events and social invitations, it becomes easy to see what to do when your child is overwhelmed with schoolwork: you start by looking ahead together.
Ask your child when their major assignments and exams are coming up, then map out the next few weeks together. With a shared view of what’s coming, you can protect pockets of time intentionally. Maybe it means turning down a social event so your child has space to rest and review. Maybe it means keeping a weekend slower than usual. Families often have more control than they realize over their schedules, and a little structure can go a long way in managing student stress and keeping things from spiraling into last-minute chaos.
Performances, practices, and celebrations can continue at full speed through December, which makes it all the more important to help your child balance joy with responsibility. Your calm presence and steady guidance remind them that they don’t have to choose between excitement and focus — they can honor both without letting either overwhelm the other.
A Season for Support, Not Strain
The weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break can feel like a swirl of excitement, expectations, and exhaustion. But they also offer families a chance to practice communication, strengthen habits, and build confidence in truly meaningful ways. With small shifts in how you plan, talk, and respond, you can transform this hectic stretch into a period of warmth, connection, and growth.
And as always, we’re here to support you and your child as you navigate the season ahead — and as you continue learning what really works when it comes to managing student stress during the holidays and beyond.
