This Is The Report That I Expected!!!

In the beginning of the school year, we really struggled to get Shane adjusted to fourth grade. He had so many visits to the school guidance counselor that I thought he had a crush on her.

He didn't. He just needed to talk to her because she said "stop by anytime you have something to talk about." So...he did. She was his personal counselor there for a few weeks.

And I'm pretty sure that the school nurse thought that he was a hypercondriac because he was in her office every day too. I think that his hair hurt one day. ;) Okay. That's an exaggeration. Or not. But I did get on a first name basis with the nurse.

He had this same adjustment issue in third grade. It's like putting on an old sock. A stinky old sock. So I had meetings with his regular teacher and the Focus teacher. We were concerned about him. His work was bad. BAD. He wanted to quit the Focus program because the "kids are so much smarter than me."

Basically what it boiled down to is he just has a hard time adjusting and settling down. He overthinks everything and things blow up into something that they shouldn't. He is hesitant to try new things because he doesn't like to fail. Oh. And he doesn't like to do any work that requires a little bit of effort on his part. That would be the lazy part of the equation.

During the meeting with his teachers I told them that that work that he was producing was subpar and he could do better and they just needed to sit on him and force him through this period (because he would just quit rather than challenge himself.) They thought I was being hard on him. I said that it's mode of operation and he would settle down and by the end of the year he would be a different child.

He has and I love it when I'm right.

And I love to get emails from the teachers with positive reports, such as the one below from one of his teachers about his work in robotics. Mr. P. is the engineer helping instruct the robotics class.

Kim,
Mr. P really enjoyed working with Shane. He commented that Shane was very sharp. He even told me Shane's comment about a one wheel turn and the angle and time needed to make it happen as opposed to a two wheel turn. He said he could not believe a 4th grader would make such an insightful comment. Way to go, Shane! Ms. K

Way to go indeed. This is the work that I knew he was capable of in the beginning of school and this is why I would not accept the subpar "crap" that he was producing in the beginning of the year and the "I can't do it" attitude. Sometimes he just needs to be pushed out of his comfort zone.

I told Shane that he had his two years of freak out because I will not accept him freaking out next year in Fifth grade. I can hardly wait for middle school. Groan.