Parent teacher conferences are today.
Report cards just came home, and I was shocked to see that my oldest son's behavior marks were abysmal. Apparently, he's yelling things out in class, using crass language, and being overall disruptive and strange. This is totally out of character for him at school. His last two years at this school, he's been great. He's been the 'good' kid.
I don't know if he's just going through a phase, or if it's developmental. (He's in second grade and will be 8 in April), but he's also been pretty terrible at home these last few months. Bullying his brother (who is 6) by saying mean things to him in order to manipulate him. He's disrespectful and talking back to us. He complains NON-STOP. I mean, the kid never shuts up, and all of it is whining.
I have tried to give him space when he gets home, and freedom, because the belief was as long as he was doing what needed to be done at school, and was meeting all of his obligations and doing well, I would give him a little more slack to let off steam at home. Now I find out He's NOT doing what he's supposed to at school, and well, now I have to figure out what to do with him.
He didn't used to be like this. I'm trying to figure out what to do and what changed. But as you know, nothing in parenting is ever clear.
I did notice that he suddenly has no social skills. I guess as relationships have gotten more complicated (sharing is no longer enough), he's being left behind. At school fun night, he sat alone under a table instead of running around and playing with other kids. It was only at the end where he ran around with some friends. Then, we took him to a cub scout meeting and instead of talking with the kids he knows, he was alone. He also would scream, then fall on the ground and roll around whenever something exciting happened. All the other kids looked at him like he was crazy. Not an appropriate reaction. I asked him about it later, and he said he didn't know why he did it, just that he was excited.
He has friends, but still. Ugh. Why is my kid so weird??? 
Anyway, there are a few financial bits in this, too. I swear.
$1200 more off the mortgage balance
- Dh took the kids to see his parents in Vermont. They had originally said they would pay for the plane tickets, but we ended up paying for them out of pocket. DH came home with a check from his parents for $1200 for the tickets. We'd already paid the bill, so we put it to the mortgage. It was nice to knock another $1200 off the balance.
Inch-worming to the IRA goal
-I got a check for $912 in freelance and I put all of that into the IRA for the year. At first, I was excited to see I'm over $4000 for the year, then I realized I STILL have to come up with $1200 to fully fund for the year. Gah!
My 7 year old is crazy....and it's driving me crazy
November 3rd, 2015 at 03:00 pm
November 3rd, 2015 at 03:47 pm 1446565628
November 3rd, 2015 at 03:47 pm 1446565636
I guess just a rambling way to say, keep working with him and hopefully he'll eventually move onto a new, less obnoxious phase!
November 3rd, 2015 at 03:49 pm 1446565755
November 3rd, 2015 at 03:57 pm 1446566223
Hmmm ... did the change start with the new school year? Seems like it - from what you've shared. I would definitely ask to talk to the school social worker and try to get a feel for the dynamics of the class. DS could be bullied and at 8 I don't think kids have the range of acceptable outlets to deal with "stuff" - so aggression and disruption do happen.
I met with the social worker at the public school oldest son's IEP. They are great resources for counselors or even just ideas to manage things. I would think going forward I would check-in weekly with the teacher just to monitor progress. Make up a behavior management plan - each day without an incident gets a star, and "x" stars = desired reward. And how about 1:1 play dates outside of school? Do they happen? How do they go?
We've all got kids who have random spurts of weirdness.
November 3rd, 2015 at 09:20 pm 1446585608
November 4th, 2015 at 02:20 am 1446603602