Thursday, October 11, 2012

Uh Oh

Jack has been in Chess Club for exactly one day.

He rushed into the house, got on my laptop, and got into the website that they all have access to.

He doesn't even really know the names of the pieces, but was already thinking 3 moves ahead. Literally. I'd suggest moving somewhere and he'd go "no, because they they'll move here and I'll move there and they'll move here and then they'll get me."

He will be beating me by the weekend. I guarantee it.


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

A Plan

So this behavior thing has GOT TO CHANGE.

Chuck and I have a plan. A new strategy for the kids. We will triumph. Mark my words.

It's concise. Straightforward. Like my writing right now. It's nothing revolutionary but we feel good about it, and I think it will get us all on the exact same page.

For Ryker, we are also instituting a new sticker chart. Instead of having a very consequence-focused approach with him, which is what it's come to in the last few months, we are focusing on rewards. It will be based on him talking about his feelings as well as his behavior at school.

I came home completely jazzed about this. I also planned to really work on getting them to talk more about their feelings. Ryk is barely doing that. Jack does it sporadically. Before I could even get going, Ryker revealed that some kids are being mean to him at school, complete with details about what they are saying.

I started to talk to Jack about that at bedtime, in the hopes that me letting him in on the "adult" stuff would help his behavior towards his brother. He cut me off, in a nice way, and said "kids are teasing me too."

I must have just had a "tell Momma all about it" kind of look on my face. I'm really glad they both told me, and we have plans in place, and neither is anything horrifically awful, but hearing that your kids are feeling sad is THE WORST THING EVER. We'll work on it all though - their feelings, their reaction to peers, their control over their own words and actions. Giddy up.

As an aside - we had Jack's well child appointment yesterday. I love those. We love our pediatrician a lot. Jack is 4'5" and 74 lbs. That puts him in the 92nd percentile for weight and 99th for height. Height predictors now put him at 6'6".

He was adorable - answering questions himself and giggling through the entire appointment, including his Tetanus shot. I would think that was really odd, but I used to laugh (instead of cry) while the trainers at Carleton worked all the knots out of my back with their elbows, so I kind of get it.

That's all.