Thursday, August 9, 2012

Can you hear me now?

Although we've been having all kinds of fun lately, in the spirit of honesty I should also share our current struggles. Gray has been having a really difficult time listening the last couple of weeks and we've had to form a united front with this preschool teachers to nip it in the bud. 

It started with several reports at school that he hadn't been listening to his teacher. Each time he gets a bad report or note sent home from school he knows something is going to get taken away. Usually that means no TV time or Buzz Lightyear gets put on the shelf. 

Despite our follow-through, it wasn't working so his teacher had to call in the big guns on Monday morning. She had been threatening, "Don't make me call your daddy!" and made good on her promise. Grayson had to get on the phone with Michael and get a talkin' to, plus he had to tell Daddy that in addition to not listening, he also threw a block and hit a girl in the eye. Let's just say none of us had a good day that day. 

In addition to the listening issues, we've also been having a really difficult time getting Grayson to go to sleep and stay in his bed. This makes him impossible to wake up each morning and further complicates the situation since he's tired and whiny. 

I've been noticing that each day we go without watching TV, his behavior seems to get better (we started Monday night). He wasn't even watching that much, but it's amazing to see how creative he has become with his toys and how much of a helper he wants to be around the house. Today he had a good report at school, but we're still not going to digress into the TV cycle again. He'll probably watch some over the weekend, but not in the hours leading up to bedtime. 

I'm also teaching him to say "Yes, Mommy" or somehow acknowledge a request so I know that he's heard me. I know his teacher can't do that with all her students, but hopefully if he's a better listener at home it will trickle over into when he's at school. 

Fingers crossed we're on the right track before "big boy school" starts in a few weeks. Wish us luck. We need all the help we can get!


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep it up they all go through this... i think Blayne is still doing this at home. We nipped it in the bud when he wouldnt listen to his teachers and Robbie and I both left work and met at the school and took him out of his classroom for a nice chat in the parking lot. We have never had another problem with him... in the classroom any way.
Love yall
jen

Keenan said...

I swear this sounds exactly like Luke the past couple of weeks! I feel your pain. We are starting to make a bit of progress too, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for both of our boys! :) Hang in there!