The Slippery Slope
Got another "talking to" from the teacher today. She's always very nice and pleasant about it...I know that she's not intentionally trying to make me feel like a bad parent, but...
Last week, on Thursday, the talk was about the fact that Josiah left class and went outside to wait for me to pick him up. It was an early dismissal day, the kids were done at 11:00 and I had told him about it...maybe one time too many. Don't ask me what was going through his head...I suppose he thought it was time, so dangit, he was going out to wait. Luckily, one of the school secretaries saw him sitting outside and alerted the teacher, who of course was looking frantically for him.
I am trying not to worry about the fact that apparently he can just wander off from class and leave the school without anyone noticing...
Today, he had to turn his green card over for a yellow card...the first level of punishment, which means that he has to stay in during recess. Teacher said that he was not interested in doing his handwriting work today, was fooling around instead, and being that this was the second day that he was behaving in this manner, she had to discipline him. So she picked him up from lunch and he had to go and sit and do his handwriting work.
Let me interject here that I think I have all of these facts straight. Teacher and I were having our conversation while 1.2 million children were milling about, I was hot and sweaty and had to pee and trying to keep track of Josiah and Annika in the crowd. So to say that my attention was a bit diverted...
Anyway. Teacher said "I'm not sure that doing handwriting is punishment for him", which I can understand. Josiah loves to write...I'm sure that the failure to do the work in a timely manner stems not from not wanting to do the work, but from wanting to do it on his schedule. Sigh. When I got him home and asked him about it though, he started talking about recess and not wanting to go to recess because his friends "don't want to play with him".
This is the slippery part...because I can't quite figure out what's going on, when I ask him why he thinks they don't want to play with him, he doesn't have a good answer and starts telling me about some sort of game and they "won't let him catch the ball" and etc.
This is hard...how in the world do I make him understand that he needs to listen to his teacher, do the work when he is told to and also, how do I help him feel confident enough to go to recess and not worry about who he's going to play with? He's FIVE. I wish he could just go outside and play and have fun...not worry about being accepted already.
He's currently spending a little time alone in his room to think about his day. Hopefully, further gentle interrogation from his father will help to shed some light on whatever is going on. Teacher did say that he has been doing well on staying in the classroom and responding respectfully to her, so maybe a nice long talk is just what the doctor ordered.
Three weeks in...only 12 years left to go. Sigh.
Last week, on Thursday, the talk was about the fact that Josiah left class and went outside to wait for me to pick him up. It was an early dismissal day, the kids were done at 11:00 and I had told him about it...maybe one time too many. Don't ask me what was going through his head...I suppose he thought it was time, so dangit, he was going out to wait. Luckily, one of the school secretaries saw him sitting outside and alerted the teacher, who of course was looking frantically for him.
I am trying not to worry about the fact that apparently he can just wander off from class and leave the school without anyone noticing...
Today, he had to turn his green card over for a yellow card...the first level of punishment, which means that he has to stay in during recess. Teacher said that he was not interested in doing his handwriting work today, was fooling around instead, and being that this was the second day that he was behaving in this manner, she had to discipline him. So she picked him up from lunch and he had to go and sit and do his handwriting work.
Let me interject here that I think I have all of these facts straight. Teacher and I were having our conversation while 1.2 million children were milling about, I was hot and sweaty and had to pee and trying to keep track of Josiah and Annika in the crowd. So to say that my attention was a bit diverted...
Anyway. Teacher said "I'm not sure that doing handwriting is punishment for him", which I can understand. Josiah loves to write...I'm sure that the failure to do the work in a timely manner stems not from not wanting to do the work, but from wanting to do it on his schedule. Sigh. When I got him home and asked him about it though, he started talking about recess and not wanting to go to recess because his friends "don't want to play with him".
This is the slippery part...because I can't quite figure out what's going on, when I ask him why he thinks they don't want to play with him, he doesn't have a good answer and starts telling me about some sort of game and they "won't let him catch the ball" and etc.
This is hard...how in the world do I make him understand that he needs to listen to his teacher, do the work when he is told to and also, how do I help him feel confident enough to go to recess and not worry about who he's going to play with? He's FIVE. I wish he could just go outside and play and have fun...not worry about being accepted already.
He's currently spending a little time alone in his room to think about his day. Hopefully, further gentle interrogation from his father will help to shed some light on whatever is going on. Teacher did say that he has been doing well on staying in the classroom and responding respectfully to her, so maybe a nice long talk is just what the doctor ordered.
Three weeks in...only 12 years left to go. Sigh.
Comments
I'm not sure I agree with the teacher taking recess away from a five year old boy. Sounds counter-productive to me. But I'm no teacher.
I hate to see him make the same mistakes that I made...