Clothed with Grace: A New Phase

Monday, April 11, 2016

A New Phase

Grant has had a great year in Kindergarten, however, the week after spring break was a tough one for him. Evidently "Chatty Kathy" was spending his work time in class visiting and not getting his work done. The teacher emailed me and said he's very smart, but just too busy talking. Great job, Grant..... So, last week he was moved to his own desk for work time. Grant said he likes it, because he's distracted by his friends and wants to get his work done. However, the kid needs to have the self-control to work at his table with classmates like everyone else.

His teacher set up a goal of getting his work done for the week, then getting to move back to his table starting today. We also added an incentive at home. He's been begging for an ipod for music and I happen to have an old one that's been sitting in my desk. Meeting his goal at school meant earning the ipod, with the expectation that if bad behavior arrises again, he'll lose it until behavior improves. He earned it, which is great and I'm excited to hear how his transition back to sitting with the other kids works too.

As for at home, right about the same time Grant started to argue with us and try negotiate too. The tipping point was when he wouldn't listen to his Grandma when she game to visit. So, we added some new things at home too. Each time he argues means he has to go to bed 10 minutes earlier, and if he doesn't argue the whole night then he gets to go to school breakfast the next morning, which he loves. This is also going pretty well, but it's all about consistency. With Grant's spring break being nearly two weeks long (it included the Friday before Easter and the Monday after too), Grant had a lot of down time and a looser schedule between spending a few days with Hannah and I, a few days with Grandma, then a day at Kids Club. The lack of routine and consistency definitely didn't fare well for my kid.

We're continuing to work on being consistent at home, and luckily I'm able to use some of my teaching experience as it relates to correcting behavior to help us at home, but it's not easy. Just when you get into a nice groove, things change. I can only imagine how things will evolve as Grant gets older. I definitely feel a sense of urgency to do my best to take care of these "small" issues before they get big.

This shirt from Target a couple of years ago is one of my favorites for spring. I wore it last week with my red pants and today with white. These white jeans continue to be a favorite. A white skinny leg is not flattering on me at all, so this straight leg works really well and they don't stretch out through out the day either.