Gleek’s notes
For the second time this week I arrived to pick up Gleek at Kindergarten only to be told that she was down in the office. On Wednesday she ran away from her teacher and threw a kicking/screaming tantrum when she was caught. Today she threw crayons at a classmate and hit the pregnant mom helper in the stomach. In both cases, Gleek had a pretty good day at school right until the end of class when she lost it over a minor issue. I had a longish talk with her teacher in which I was informed that compared to half of the afternoon kindergarten class, Gleek is a complete angel. Apparently Gleek isn’t even the worst in her class. Mostly she has trouble getting started on an assignment and then switching tasks when the class does.
I know that Gleek is an angel. I watch her as she tries so hard to control herself. When she can’t keep herself under control, she relies on me to rein her back in. I love her dearly, which is why I’m willing to keep working with her. My biggest school fear for her is that the people at school will get tired of dealing with her. So far that hasn’t happened. It concerns me to hear that there are so many kids with behavioral issues in the same grade as she is. I worry that she’ll end up in a class full of outrageous behavioral problems and won’t get the attention she needs. But all of those concerns are borrowing trouble. For today I needed to figure out how to address the current behavior and make sure that she knows it is unacceptable to treat teachers, helpers, and classmates this way.
Howard gave her a very serious talking-to, complete with Daddy Scowl. She didn’t like that. Then I sat down and required her to write “I’m sorry” notes to all the people affected by her behavior. This time around I let her dictate the notes and sign them, but I think in the future I’ll require her to do the writing as well. Hopefully creating the notes and delivering the notes will help her have a clearer picture of just how many people she affects when she misbehaves. And if knowing that she’ll have to write sorry notes helps her curb her own behavior, then so much the better.