Riley's Introduction to Time Out!

Well...we knew it was inevitable! This past Tuesday when I picked Riley up from school he was sitting in time out! Nice...his afternoon teacher who is not his teacher all day said he pushed a girl TWICE, so she put him in time out. No biggie. I totally agree with that approach! It was just the first official time, AND it just so happened to be the 2nd day he was in the much larger 2 year old class. I went home and thought nothing else about it!

Then......fast forward to drop off Thursday am, and his normal teacher basically gives me a 20 minute rundown of how aggressive Riley is being by pushing and wrestling even the little girls that are half his size. So much so that the little girls are running behind the teacher to get away from him! Wow! To say that's not a good way to start your day would be an understatement! So I call Kelly and have a good ol' cry all the way to work, then put on my happy work face for a 2 hour meeting! :)

Let's just say I was a little distracted in my meeting...and I started to think about everything the teacher said. She basically said she usually gives kids that have just moved up a week grace period before she starts disciplining them, but that since the girls are running behind her and he's bigger than pretty much every boy in his class she had to start putting him in time out on Wed to protect the other kids. I TOTALLY agree with protecting the other kids. Obviously, I don't want my child to harm another child!

However, I started thinking about the fact that Riley has only been in "group care" for 6 weeks. AND he's the youngest kid in his class. His birthday is 2 days before the cutoff, so it's almost like reverse discrimination! Just because my little boy is so BIG doesn't mean he's ready or able to comprehend BIG boy concepts! And his world has TOTALLY been rocked in the last 6 weeks, so maybe he just needs a little help adjusting from being 1 of 1 with Ms. Emily to 1 of 4 with Ms. Jessica to 1 of 11 with Ms. Amber.

Anyway....things didn't really improve the rest of the week, so I'm not exactly looking forward to seeing how things go this week! Kelly's reeled in the playing aggressively with him at home at least for the time being until he simmers down at school or begins to get the concept of ok with Daddy does not mean ok with little girl at school.

I really like The Sloan School, so I hope this isn't the beginning of the end! Only time will tell. I guess this is the good and bad thing about having him in a small school. By the time the teacher talked to me on Thursday, she had already discussed Riley's behavior with the owners, director, assistant director and his previous teacher! I was like! Wow! We went from 0 to 60 quick! I figured they would at least talk to me before involving the entire administration of the school! And I'm not meaning to be insensitive, but I'm pretty sure Riley isn't the first child to exhibit aggressive behavior! In fact, the teacher even said he's not doing it to be mean, it's just when they get near his toy, and sometimes he's even smiling when he's doing it like he's playing! I'm like that's because he IS playing! You should see the testosterone filled wrestling matches that occur on my sofa and living room floor! Which is why Dad's going to cut back on some of the testosterone playing for the time being! 

To be continued.....