Brodie and the other k-5 kids are on a color system for behavior. Green means that you had a good day, yellow means that you did some things that were not very nice, and red means that you were a total terror. In Brodie's folder is a calendar and every day has a dot. That dot is filled in by his teacher every afternoon with one of these three colors. Lorrie and I find ourselves anticipating opening that folder every day to see what color he got for the day. When his dot is green, he runs out to our car in the carpool line and just goes crazy showing us his good behavior. He is so proud of himself for that. However, when the color is yellow he slowly walks up with a look of disgust on his face. We are two days in a row now with yellow dots. In the past two weeks he has hit, kicked, spit, pinched and bit another child in class. The bright side for us is that he seemingly has run the list and we cannot imagine what else he can do. We figure tomorrow he will push someone or pull their hair. Yesterday, he got in trouble for singing in the hallway. However, he was singing Jesus Loves Me. That made us feel a little better. He has lost privileges and has had to sit out of play time. It is so frustrating because he knows better. He understands what he has done and that it is not good. Yet, he chooses to keep making bad decisions. Lorrie and I are at our wits end. Tonight at church, he scratched another kid. Our son may be a bully, we don't know. One thing is for sure, he will learn right from wrong if we have to do this for an entire year, he will learn. He continues to do well with his language. He is actually reading several words now. He is struggling with his colors and his shapes. We are also finding that having a 7th grader is not easy. As I write, it is 10:11PM and Maggie is still doing homework. It has been a tough week around here!! Good news with our new room addition. Some wonderful guys have been helping us build a new room and we start sheetrocking on Saturday. It is framed, insulated, and ready for rock on the walls.
Lorrie and I are finding less time to do the things we want these days. Our days are totally filled with church, schoolwork, household chores, children's activities, and working on the new room. It seems like we are constantly cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and homework. So it really is about the color these days for us. What will Brodie bring home tomorrow. Who will his latest victim be and what will be the weapon of choice. It is like a game of clue.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to let you know that our family is praying for your family!!! We went through similar events with Sarah Hope. We put her in K-4 at my dad's private school. She chased a boy with scissors, destroyed school property, yelled at her teacher, refused to stand in time-out, told stories, cut her hair, destroyed her room,...I could go on for hours. We would pray, cry, talk, take away toys/ dresses (her favorite), and more. We were at a total loss! With Hannah Grace, we would just look at her and she would cry at our disapproval. I think it is related to older child adoption. SH was 4 years 4 months when she came home. I don't know if this will work for y'all, but I will share what helped us. We started holding her a lot. I carried her around the house/public, she set in my lap, lots of hugs, and we even used a bottle for her juice/ water while I rocked her. We kept telling her that we would never leave her and we would be with her forever. I even gave her pictures of the 4 of us to have with her at all times. Sometimes she would sleep with it.
Now, she is in K-5 and we have not had behavior issues. She has truly transformed in the last year! She loves school and her teacher. It will get better!
I do know one thing. Prayer works!
So, we will be praying!
Many Blessings to the Bunch of Blackwells!
Stephanie
I don't know if it will work for Brodie, but our mildly autistic son learned his shapes, colors, numbers and letters in 2 weeks from watching the "Preschool Prep Company" videos! Meet the Colors, Meet the Shapes, etc. They are wonderful!! You can purchase them at the Parent-teacher Store in Hoover. They have a whole series! It's located on the shelves that go around the registers. Wonderful product! Highly recommend! Well worth it! Blessings to your sweet family! Praying for you!
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