What is best for my son?

[Greek]

BobbiJo ~
When our boys were your son's age, I read The Wonder of Boys and it helped me so much to understand "boy world". There are undeniable facts about boys - hard wiring, needs, rates of maturity, gross/fine motor development differences - too much to summarize here. But this book truly helped me see my boys differently and deal with them more effectively. For example, putting a ball in a boy's hand (or a pool stick, or legos, or a shovel) and playing along side of him will open him up better than sitting down at the kitchen table and saying, "Son, we need to talk...". Get them busy at play or fun work and a boy will talk. Anyway, that's just one of many things I learned and employed as a mom...and as an educator, too.

I couldn't say - and really, neither could the teacher - that this acting out is truly about what's going on at home. It could be, but with such a little boy, how could one really know that? It's tempting to hang behavior on a hook like trauma/drama at home b/c when we're going through that, loving parents are watchful of that. It worries us that our difficulties are handicapping our children somehow. It's worthy of considering as a factor, but also factor in age, learning to read (stressful!), and just being a little guy figuring things out. It is possible that he would have had nearly the same week he had even if everything was A-Ok at home.

Cheers ~~~