Teacher Conference

We had our conference this morning with Mrs. Wentzell, Kelly's kindergarten teacher. There were no problems to report. Kelly is not the shining star of the class, outpacing all of her classmates, but she is doing well in all the categories that the teacher tracks. In the parlance of my workplace's review forms, she 'meets expectations', but does not 'consistently exceed expectations'.

We got to see samples of her 'writing' from the start of the school year and from now. It is amazing how much she has already progressed. She still gets some characters reversed, and they are spindly, but still recognizable.

Mrs. Wentzell assures me that the trouble I'm taking with Kelly in the morning over her breakfast is making a tremendous difference in her behavior in class. I suspect that the earlier bedtime is helping also.

Now we need to begin fine-tuning Kelly's priviledges at home to suit her behavior. She hasn't been giving me any problems, but Jean says she is getting sassy and won't even go to her room when she's told to. So when I get home tonight, the plan is to feed her, let her blood sugar get to a respectable level, then lay down new ground rules for home behavior.

As I told her when this school misbehavior business started, she is allowed to make a lot of choices for herself so long as she shows that she can behave in a pleasant manner. But when she lost control of herself, she lost the priviledge of choosing her own breakfast and how much to eat. The same will go for home now. She will be told when and how much and what to eat. She will be expected to go to her room when told. If not, then we will begin selecting from her favorite toys and placing them into a 'toy jail'. From there, she can bail them out with good behavior. Failure to behave will result in the toys in 'toy jail' being sent away for good to new homes (Goodwill).

We'll see how that works. Wish me luck!