written by Jill
My son is 5 and, boy, is he giving me a run for my money. He is a burping, talking back, argumentative, defiant ball of 5-year-old “ness.”
He started kindergarten in late August. All was well for the first week. He did well in school…at least, we heard nothing from school, so we assumed he was toeing the line. He was tired. Week 2 was the same with no reports. Weeks 3, 4, 5…it was like O.K. wait a minute what did you say and let me get my pen and write that down and he did what and to whom…aaarrrggghhh.
He took a kid’s backpack on the bus and threw it back at the child. He hit a child in free choice…nice. He got a yellow warning 4 times and got in red once. I tried the “O.K. we don’t act that way in school”–no change. I tried the “O.K. if you do this at school there will be consequences at home”–no change.
I was at my wit’s end. I did not want my son to get another minor incident report or get in yellow/red on the school behavior chart, so I came up with the perfect solution. He loves playing with his dad. I told him if he stayed in green he would be able to play a game/video game with his dad. Worked like a charm. He has been in green every day since week 6.
Here is his monthly behavior chart.
So, school is going well (for now…I am a born pessimist and assume everything good will come to a screeching halt eventually)…but home is another story. For as good as he is at school, he is giving me a run for my money at home. This weekend was awful. Today he was in timeout 5 separate times for talking back, humming over my talking, pushing his sister to get in the van. I told him to be silent during the drive home from volleyball. He was so noisy in church–I was embarrassed.
Tomorrow as we say is another day…all three kids are home for a professional day. Wish me luck.
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About Mom Spark
Yeah, that sounds like my son, except it was first grade. Every other school year has been great except for that one. The problem: he hated his teacher. We didn’t care much for her either, but that’s a long story.
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You’ll learn a lot from here on out about school, and behaviors can vary from year-to-year and teacher-to-teacher. We’ve found that when the kids have unorganized teachers with chaotic classrooms, our kids don’t do as well, and yet the teachers tend to point out how poorly the children are doing rather than whipping their classrooms into shape. I could write a novel on this at this point, but I’m thankful my own mother, who had NO issues with me, was able to share some experiences and stories of her own — like the time a teacher told her she needed to do something about my sister….too many boys wanted to talk to her. @@ Our school kindergarten orientation did touch upon how stressful kindergarten can be, how exposure to snotty kids can sometimes rub off on your “angel” because “Hey, it works for the snotty kids,” and they do tend to act out more at home due to stress, etc. Remember to check frequently with your child about any hardships (are they being picked on?, do they get along with everyone?, etc.), and offer solutions to how they can handle these situations – it’s all brand new to them, and full-day kindergarten can be much harder or more stressful to them than half-day kindergarten as well.
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AW…hugs mom!! Your post made me laugh and cringe–my 4 year old will start Kindergarten in August, and I am already nervous!
Good luck tomorrow! (don’t these “professional days” make you a little suspicious sometimes?? LOL!)
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