We had another meeting with the school in which they said how much improved kiddo's behavior was and how well he's doing academically -- apparently he's jumped a few reading levels and is now slightly ahead of where he needs to be. The takeaway was, basically, "Keep doing what you're doing." His OT also sees some improvement but plans to continue working with him on motor skills and such.
I am a little concerned that his daily check mark quota on the behavior chart has gone down of late, from eight or nine to four or five. That might partially be the new-and-improved chart structure, which more closely tracks the specific times of day on his behaviors. It might be a more or less attentive substitute teacher, since his teacher gets a sub for conference days. What I'm afraid of, of course, is the medication suddenly not working anymore, because sometimes that happens.
Friday seemed to bear that out a bit; he got two checks. And was hitting kids and pushing them again. This literally a day after hearing the school officials rave about him.
Saturday, I took him to Trader Joe's. He likes these trips, because there are always free samples of food, and because if he finds the giant stuffed lobster hidden somewhere in the store, he gets to take a cereal bar from the prize box. And everything went great. I mean shockingly so. No running in the aisles. No hiding behind displays. No tantrums about wanting to ride in the cart even though he's grown way past the cart-riding stage. No throwing himself to the floor because he wasn't getting his way. I always knew where he was, and when I told him to go somewhere, he went. I almost wanted to pinch myself.
Saturday afternoon, the kids and I went for a walk, he on the tricycle he really shouldn't be riding anymore because his knees stick out at the sides (but he refuses to switch up to the bike). Things were fine until he and kiddette decided it would be fun to race ahead of me, and then kiddo thwacked the toy monkey right out of her hand and kept riding. And kept riding, even though I was yelling at him to stop. I caught up to him, confiscated the trike and made him walk right home.
Definitely he and kiddette egg each other on in a bad way, which might be what happened here. Occasionally if I want one of them to do something, I'll kick the other one out of the room, just to squash that tendency.
Today was the Spring Shiai for kiddo's karate studio (and a couple other studios/dojos as well). I hadn't originally signed him up for it, because we were going to be out of town this weekend, but change of plans (boo strep throat). But since we suddenly had no plans, well. A shiai is a combination exhibition and sparring competition, plus the announcement of any students who are being promoted to a higher belt. Before today, I did not know this.
Kiddo only just started, so he wasn't ready for sparring (plus we haven't actually dropped the $65 on the padded gear yet). He sat out that part, then rejoined the students for the demonstration, sitting on the floor with the other white belts until it was his turn, following along as best he could, then sitting back down. All this took several hours. And he was a total champ about it. He didn't freak that we weren't down there with him. He did the moves. He sat. No defiance, no refusal, no running. A little goofing around. At one point, when they were supposed to be standing still, he appeared to be doing his own version of the chicken dance. But really that was it. He didn't even get upset about no trophy or no new belt. He followed directions and behaved. This is better than any trophy.
It did occur to me, sitting in the bleachers with an increasingly bored kiddette, that we were now doing the official parent thing -- sitting through your kid's athletic meet. On the plus side, better this than football. On the minus side, everything I know about karate I learned in "The Karate Kid," so I kept thinking "sand the floor" and "wax on, wax off" and "Do the crane, Daniel!"
So the good really outweighed the bad this weekend. Hoping to say the same about the coming week.
I am a little concerned that his daily check mark quota on the behavior chart has gone down of late, from eight or nine to four or five. That might partially be the new-and-improved chart structure, which more closely tracks the specific times of day on his behaviors. It might be a more or less attentive substitute teacher, since his teacher gets a sub for conference days. What I'm afraid of, of course, is the medication suddenly not working anymore, because sometimes that happens.
Friday seemed to bear that out a bit; he got two checks. And was hitting kids and pushing them again. This literally a day after hearing the school officials rave about him.
Saturday, I took him to Trader Joe's. He likes these trips, because there are always free samples of food, and because if he finds the giant stuffed lobster hidden somewhere in the store, he gets to take a cereal bar from the prize box. And everything went great. I mean shockingly so. No running in the aisles. No hiding behind displays. No tantrums about wanting to ride in the cart even though he's grown way past the cart-riding stage. No throwing himself to the floor because he wasn't getting his way. I always knew where he was, and when I told him to go somewhere, he went. I almost wanted to pinch myself.
Saturday afternoon, the kids and I went for a walk, he on the tricycle he really shouldn't be riding anymore because his knees stick out at the sides (but he refuses to switch up to the bike). Things were fine until he and kiddette decided it would be fun to race ahead of me, and then kiddo thwacked the toy monkey right out of her hand and kept riding. And kept riding, even though I was yelling at him to stop. I caught up to him, confiscated the trike and made him walk right home.
Definitely he and kiddette egg each other on in a bad way, which might be what happened here. Occasionally if I want one of them to do something, I'll kick the other one out of the room, just to squash that tendency.
Today was the Spring Shiai for kiddo's karate studio (and a couple other studios/dojos as well). I hadn't originally signed him up for it, because we were going to be out of town this weekend, but change of plans (boo strep throat). But since we suddenly had no plans, well. A shiai is a combination exhibition and sparring competition, plus the announcement of any students who are being promoted to a higher belt. Before today, I did not know this.
Kiddo only just started, so he wasn't ready for sparring (plus we haven't actually dropped the $65 on the padded gear yet). He sat out that part, then rejoined the students for the demonstration, sitting on the floor with the other white belts until it was his turn, following along as best he could, then sitting back down. All this took several hours. And he was a total champ about it. He didn't freak that we weren't down there with him. He did the moves. He sat. No defiance, no refusal, no running. A little goofing around. At one point, when they were supposed to be standing still, he appeared to be doing his own version of the chicken dance. But really that was it. He didn't even get upset about no trophy or no new belt. He followed directions and behaved. This is better than any trophy.
It did occur to me, sitting in the bleachers with an increasingly bored kiddette, that we were now doing the official parent thing -- sitting through your kid's athletic meet. On the plus side, better this than football. On the minus side, everything I know about karate I learned in "The Karate Kid," so I kept thinking "sand the floor" and "wax on, wax off" and "Do the crane, Daniel!"
So the good really outweighed the bad this weekend. Hoping to say the same about the coming week.
No comments:
Post a Comment