 | Hang in there, don't let responses like the last one bum you out. We have a similar story, a 5yr old, in K-garten. We got a couple notes home, at first no big deal, he-did-this, he-did-that. Then we had the first open house of the year and we were stunned! Kids pointed him out to their parents - he's crazy, a bad kid, etc. This happened with three or four kids. We looked at the teacher with jaws open and she gave us this "Oh, you betcha" nod of the head. He has been goofing off, distracting others, acting silly, etc. Before school began, he was always perfectly normal, outgoing, healthy, well adjusted, even gregarious at times. Been in daycare since six weeks old. Bright, makes friends easy. If we can pinpoint anything, he may be a tad immature for 5 yrs old (he just turned 5 in Aug - a few mos. make a big diff). He pretends alot, acts silly, etc. We can see the other kids tend to articulate and concentrate better.
So, the teacher (29 years in the school system-very good) talked to us, she is reasonably sure it's not ADD or anything like that. Anyway, we are trying this: A notebook we pass back and forth each day in the backpack - she tells us how he did, we sign off and add any comments. Both we and the teacher are promoting this to him as a good thing, and we reward him for good days. It's only been a week but we see some improvement. We feel we've been good parents, patient, positive, nothing abusive, a healthy home upbringing, etc. We tell him you don't have to be perfect, but you have to be good. Oh, another thing we noticed - we curbed TV time down to under 1hr a day and it had an immediate affect. He needed to exercise his brain and not do so much passive stuff like TV. Even good, little-kid TV can be harmful if too much. That previous person should realize that power trips are lost on kids - they tune out the harping and nagging.
Good Luck,
Jim |
PREVIOUS MESSAGE
PREVIOUS DISCUSSION