Is your child heading to school for the first time? Here are tips from parenting expert Nanny Robina for what you can do to help prepare kids for their (and your) big day!

• Start teaching your kids the basics beforehand, so they’re one step ahead. Decals and tracing books are creative ways to teach them the alphabet, numbers and colours.
• Show them how to dress themselves — including pulling up zippers and fasten and unfasten Velcro — so they can put on their jackets and shoes themselves.
• Try to avoid sneakers and other shoes with laces. Draw arrows or put two halves of a sticker on the tongues of their shoes so they can tell left from right.
• Take the kids with you when you go shopping for lunchboxes and water bottles and make sure they can open the clasps and latches themselves.