Saturday, December 17, 2011

My 12 days of Christmas....Day 5

Today I am really excited for what I am choosing to celebrate in my 12 days of Christmas. Let me start off by saying, "He did it!!"

Over the last three weeks Jack has had a very difficult time in school. He has gotten in trouble for not following school rules and most recently fighting. I have tried so many different avenues one day I just sat and cried because I didn't know how too help him. I finally looked at him and gave him an ultimatum.

Either behave in school and follow the rules or your Christmas is CANCELLED. You can come with us to all the parties and accept the gifts but you will not open them. They will sit in the living room until you earn every single one of them with excellent behavior . He started to stammer some type of argumentative response out and I stopped him. I told him if he uttered another word about it he would open every present to see what he received and then we would drive up to Goodwill and drop them off.

That was the quietest he has been in six weeks. Needless to say he behaved and he will get to have Christmas. Friday he came running off the bus, ran all the way down the street and exclaimed, "I did it Mommy!! I had a great day!!" That was just the icing on the cake. He had a few good days to redeem some of the terrible behavior.

I was so worried. I prayed for him all day. I did not want to see him fail or take away his Christmas. I would have done it if I had too but I can't promise I wouldn't have cried doing it.

My problem right now is not that he is failing in school, he in fact is actually excelling faster than Katie did. He completes his Math homework so fast I barely knew he had any to do. Then he tries to figure out Katie's. His reading level is where  he should be at the end of February not Mid-December. I truly believe he is bored and it is getting him in trouble. If I could only get him to understand he is not in charge and he MUST follow the rules.

But for now, today I will celebrate the small victory of getting him back on the right road of following the rules. I do not have to take away anything away at Christmas. more importantly I have a lot of work today helping him understand. His kindergarten teacher said this would be a difficult year for him. When he made it through every other year would be a breeze. I hope she is right.

Today is for SMALL VICTORIES!! Good Job Jack I knew you could do it.

TTFN~

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