Meds. Sometimes, it's the only solution.

(Recycle Bin update- No. Trash can- out the night before!  WOOHOO! Thanks mommy...)

We are now in the 6th week of school. This is when Parent/Teacher Conferences happen.

Yes, we had the "prelude to Teacher Conferences" last week when we learned about the 62% in math.  If only that had been the worst part, I would have been THRILLED!

The teacher thinks that the reason the Boy child has math problems is because that lesson is taught in the morning. 

Symptoms of the not- focusing in the morning problem, as outlined by Teacher:

1- "Shadowing" the teacher.  This is when Boy child gets out of his chair, stands behind teacher, and walks around the room behind her as she teaches.  YES.  I'M SERIOUS.
2- Breakdown. This is when the boy child gets upset at being told to sit down, and starts to cry. In 5th grade. Because he is told to sit down.
3- Zoning Out. The boy child will put his head down in the desk on his arms and completely remove himself from the lesson.  Other children are looking at the overhead projector info, interacting and answering questions, and he just sits there completely detached.

The Boy took standardized tests the first day of school, they call them "baseline" tests to see how they retained lessons from the previous year.

In Math the Boy scored a 12.  Average was an 8.  So... yeah. Clearly it's not ability or a learning disability.

In reading, he read 148 WPM, average is 108

In reading comprehension... not so outstanding- pretty much just below the average.  Which isn't indicative of a PROBLEM just a need for a little more focus.

The boy STILL tells me he likes his teacher.  "She's the BEST!!!" OK... so... then why are you treating her like a babysitter?

The result was that I removed his closet doors from his closet.  Sometimes he goes in the closet to "hide" when he's in trouble.  Also, a bunch of clothes and toys and crap.  So this combination results in the closet doors being forced off the tracks on a weekly basis.  Solution- no more doors.

I took a 2x2 and cut it in half.  The Boy Child's toy-box is an Ikea bookshelf with bins in it.  I fastened the 2x2's across the bins and screwed it to the bookshelf frame.  No more toys.

Ipod, Nintendo DS, etc are now in a small toolbox with a lock on it, in my room.

I took a rubbermaid container and "swept" the entire contents of his desk, into the bin.  This consisted of some broken toys, about 8,000,000,000 pens, markers, crayons, pencils, erasers, etc. and a couple of magazines. Distractions- eliminated.

And, you wonder, after 2 days, what is the apparent result?

No change.  Exactly the same behavior, every day.

Refusing to pick his clothes up off the floor, 3 hours of sitting at his desk NOT doing his homework. Waking up early each morning to NOT finish what didn't get done the night prior.

It's like the boy WANTS to be miserable.  Seriously.

---EDIT---

OH!  I forgot another GEM!

We started the conference with the teacher asking if Boy had told me about the Reflection Paper he received the day before.  Why NO, Teacher lady, please enlighten me as to why the Boy had to write a Reflection Paper... Now Boy child, why have you NOT told me about this? "I forgot"

Remember, though I may SAY things like "Time to beat the children"... I do not, in fact, beat the children. This blog is a place for me to VENT my frustrations while NOT putting the fear of non-god into my precious babies.

Though some days, I do yell more than I like.