David Weekly, V3 - 27

One of the biggest struggles I have with David is homework. He has the memo book with the 15 assignments, of which he must do 10 before the month is out. So we try to do a few each week, so that we pace ourselves, and make sure to get it done. And yet, somehow, we've managed to do 3 this week. David has discovered that they're not that hard, so he just does them with less fuss. It's becoming a more positive experience. One of the items on David's list is to write a sentence using the word "am". So he wrote, "I am a dinosaur." And the reason for this is that the dinosaurs are supposed to read it, so that way they know who _they_ are, because it would seem that if they didn't read that, they wouldn't know that they were dinosaurs. I love kid logic.

I haven't said exactly what Ms. Perez's discipline system is. It's green for a good day, orange for a single warning, yellow for two or more warnings, and red for a really bad day. Ok, now that I think of it, I did put this last week, but it bears repeating, because David had only one green day. He had a red day, too. It would seem that a little boy pulled a book out of David's hands, and so David hit the other kid. He goes to see Ms. Schaefer every so often. I need to set up another appointment to discuss his behavior, so I can get a handle on what they talk about.

Another thing I've figured out with David's anger issues and fighting. He just doesn't feel satisfied until he gets that hit in. I have to figure out how to give him an alternate way "getting in that hit" without actually him hurting someone...

David was late to school for the first time, and did not want to be in the office to get that tardy slip. He now has a better idea of the penalty for being late, and it motivates him to move when I tell him we'll be late. I wish I could figure out a penalty sufficient to where he'll remember it when he's about to hit someone.

Monday night we had our swim lesson. David plays. Instead of watching the other kids swim (there are 3 or 4 kids, depending on the day, including him), he plays with the toys or whatever. I told him he can learn in two ways: either by watching, or by practicing, or by both...but he wasn't interested. Towards the end of the lesson, his teacher took the "sink or swim" approach, and David swam. He was very very scared, and was crying after he got out of the water...later on I told him that he swam, but I don't think he believed me. He was too focused on being scared. Wednesday night he did better. I stayed away from the immediate area where he was, since I was proving to be a distraction. I was able to watch from a distance, and he did pretty well. He will get the swimming thing, but it will just take time.

For David's lunch, I've switched from PB&J to Lunchables. He seems to like that better, since they have a dessert! He still forgets his lunchbox at school on a regular basis.

Random note: David has suddenly become very interested in money, and coins in particular. I was trying to figure out why, and it turns out that there is a fundraiser of some sort at this school, and they were wanting to put money into the milk jug in his classroom. So he got a decent sized fistfull of change, and put it into the thing when we got to school...

Friday night, he and I went to the beach, in spite of his behavior. He got a flu shot on Friday as well, and cried and cried. Poor kid. He did not want that shot. Dr Sams gave me some ideas on handling his behavior, and it integrates nicely with having the two different "days" each day (school vs daycare). It involves "strikes", which I can use one strike (or two for a red day at school), and a strike for daycare, and then a strike for anything else after he gets home. But I rarely have problems with him at home...

So anyway, we went to the beach. He's been really scratching his legs lately, so when he went in the salt water, OUCH! He was in a lot of pain, and was crying...and then we went to wash it off at the showers they have at beach entrance, and then he was ok with going back in the water. He really liked playing in the waves! He even got covered by the water once or twice, but didn't really complain.

David misses his sissy. He tells me that he reads the way she does, which is simply by looking at the book, but not saying anything. "I read my book the way my sissy does," he says.

So there's a week for you. Hope things are well on your end...