5 Years Old and Shows It

My son is 5 and, boy, is he giving me a run for my money. He is a burping, talking back, argumentative, defiant ball of 5-year-old “ness.”

He started kindergarten in late August. All was well for the first week. He did well in school…at least, we heard nothing from school, so we assumed he was toeing the line. He was tired. Week 2 was the same with no reports. Weeks 3, 4, 5…it was like O.K. wait a minute what did you say and let me get my pen and write that down and he did what and to whom…aaarrrggghhh. He took a kid’s backpack on the bus and threw it back at the child, he hit a child in free choice…nice, he got a yellow warning 4 times and got in red once. I tried the “O.K. we don’t act that way in school”–no change. I tried the “O.K. if you do this at school there will be consequences at home”–no change. I was at my wit’s end as I did not want my son to get another minor incident report or get in yellow/red on the school behavior chart. I came up with the perfect solution. He loves playing with his dad. I told him if he stayed in green he would be able to play a game/video game with his dad. Worked like a charm. He has been in green every day since week 6.

So, school is going well (for now…I am a born pessimist and assume everything will come to an end in time)…but home is another story. For as good as he is at school, he is giving me a run for my money at home. This weekend was awful. Today he was in timeout 5 separate times for talking back, humming over my talking, pushing his sister to get in the van. I told him to be silent during the drive home from volleyball games. He was so noisy in church–I was embarrassed.

Tomorrow as we say is another day…all three kids are home for a professional day. Wish me luck.