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Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Green Yellow Red Black

In school, kids are given a light system, Green is for a good day, Yellow for a decent day, Red for a bad day and Black for a horrible day. To date (knock on wood) Lane has been all green all the time. Which is a huge accomplishment, he's thriving, they're challenging him and he's living up to it! Ethan had four greens, three reds and two yellows. Last week we got a letter saying that if Ethan's behavior didn't improve, he would have to talk to the principal, but it did, the next day was a green day. But this week he's only had yellows so far. I am at a loss for what to do. My cousin who is a teacher says to celebrate green days (fill the living room with green balloons, eat green foods, and take a green bath), ignore yellow days, because while they weren't great, they weren't horrible either, and on red days he's in trouble. I'm noticing a lot of struggles with him. I think he needs more attention, he has a brother who is diabetic and two working parents, my husband is rarely home in the evening, so lots of evening chores fall to me, leaving little time to watch him ride bikes or show me how good at the monkey bars he is. I don't know what to do for my little boy, I asked his teacher if she thought it could be ADHD, and she said that he's showing a lot of the signs and symptoms but that she thinks with behavior therapy, he may never need medication, which is good because I don't think I would medicate...lots of activity, change his diet and do lots of behavior therapy, but no medication...I just can't bring myself to do it. I believe Ethan will be successful, but he may need more one on one attention than I originally expected. He's always been so low maintenance that I regrettably never insisted on one-on-one. As twins, the boys have always been very independent...maybe I made a mistake in not insisting on more one-on-one with them. Lane is very high maintenance, so a lot of energy is spent, whether we're dealing with diabetes or calming a temper tantrum. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do to help Ethan pay attention in school? Sit still? Listen to his teacher? Anyone think he may have just needed an extra year of maturing before throwing him into Kindergarten? My poor baby is really struggling and I don't know what to do for him...

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