Friday, September 24, 2010

Glad to Be Done with Yesterday

I'm glad Thursday is over. Just too many obligations for one day!

Got my perm done and I'm all curly for a while.

Kayla brought home a parent alert. I'm really surprised the teachers haven't sent any with some of the previous behaviors at school. I'm not sure how they decide what gets a parent alert (official note home) and what gets a call or no sticker on the chart. What she did to get the parent alert bothers me a lot less than her telling her teacher no or hitting/scratching/pushing another child.


The incident at school sent Kayla into a downward spiral. It resulted in her not getting to watch the dance class I was thinking of enrolling her in and me deciding that we will just wait until next fall for dance. Her behavior is too unpredictable for a dance class situation where discipline is necessary. Things escalated more at home and she ended up getting sent to bed rather than going to her school's open house.


Rick took the other two to the open house. Earlier in the week Kaleb had choked a child and that child's dad threatened Rick. But how are we supposed to be responsible for our kids behaviors while they are at school and out of our sight? There is no one on hall duty when the first buses get there. I think there should be a teacher or other adult on duty from the time the first kids arrive. What Kaleb did was wrong but he does make poor choices if not supervised. We are working on it as are the teachers. But get a hall monitor for goodness sakes!



Even though Kayla had a horrible day, everyday is a new day and we don't carry over consequences for the twins at this point. Well, if you pitch a fit at the park, you won't go the next time perhaps. But things like just having a bad day end with that day. However, on Fridays we go to a convenience store nearby and it is necessary to have 16 of 24 stickers to get a dollar to spend on ice cream or other junk food. They can get up to four stickers on school days--one for being dry, one for bus behavior, one for school behavior and one for home behavior. That helps me keep things in perspective. Like, the child may have a horrible day at school but might be just fine at home and on the bus. It's easy to let the school behavior overshadow the good things. So the chart helps me as much as it does them.





There is also a movie and popcorn every night for those who have a good day at school. So I guess we have immediate reinforcements for good behavior and the Friday treat as a "long term" reward for a good week.






Anyway, I'm glad it's Friday although we don't really have any plans at this point. I'd love to take the jet ski out but my second driver works all weekend.

5 comments:

Bill and Christina said...

The chart is a good idea. It is easy to let the bad choices over shadow the good ones. I love your chart it is simple.

Kathy Cassel said...

Thanks Christina.

"Are These Kids All Yours?" said...

great chart.

Thank you for your kind comments. We will never forget our Naomi or our Hannah.....Thank God HE brings good things out of hard situations.

One Crowded House said...

I just had a great talk with the school behavioral lady- apparently our Haitian child (7 years) got written up on the bus this morning, he grabbed a girls arm, and she tried to choke him (she also go written up)... he usually gets in trouble 3 out of 5 days every week at school as well.
The behavioral person is supposed to meet with his teacher so we can all have a better plan- so we can stay on top of things and he can succeed.

Kathy Cassel said...

Dawn--I agree and it's only believing that that gets us through it.

T--We need that lady at our school. Kaleb has a sub today and tried to stab a child with scissors and went beserk. They called me and wanted him to talk to me and he was screaming "No, I won't" at the top of his lungs. I told them to take him to the principal but there is little they can really do.