It was a tough week for the House of Zeeke. We'd been a little worried he'd have some difficulty adjusting to kindergarten, but it turned out to be far worse than expected. His teacher reports that, though he's sweet and smart, he is a constant disruption in class. He talks over her and his fellow students all day long, won't sit still, throws himself down on the floor, draws on the desks and erasers, and opposes literally every request she makes of him. When asked why he does these things, he says, "It's fun." As much as we would like to leap to his defense and say that he seems like a semi-normal five-year-old when he's with us, we've certainly seen aspects of this behavior at home as well. The kid's an explosive ball of energy, half chatterbox, half stunt man, and it can sometimes be exhausting and sometimes even maddening to be around him.
Most importantly, it isn't fair that his classmates are being denied a chance to learn because the teacher has to focus so much of her attention on him. After having a meeting with her, we're confident that he can be reigned in and that she isn't giving up on him. So, there's going to be some observation and evaluation by the school's professionals and there's going go be some outside therapy.
In the meantime, we are trying to fix as much of his behavior at home as possible, in hopes that it will have results elsewhere. We've started practicing stillness, silence, and engaging in solo play. He is losing things he loves (books, tv, bath toys) as punishment for talking back, interrupting us, or making us repeat requests and having to do chores to win them back. We're done with allowing him to endlessly negotiate and we're trying not to let him use his fears to manipulate us. Obviously this is hard work for the whole family and we've all been pretty stressed. Fortunately Zeeke, at least, is resilient and we're determined to work through this.
Monday, we had one last beach day against Zeeke's wishes. In protest, he wore his pajamas instead of his bathing suit. Of course, once there he had a great time and finally changed his into appropriate attire after getting soaked by a wave.
Tuesday was his first day of school. He was happy to see his friends and marched off to class fairly bravely. He reported that he had a good time at school, although his pal Zoe reported that "Maestra Ane said Zeeke's name a lot!" when we went out for pizza that night.
Saturday, we went to Odin's birthday party at Smith Playground, then Zeeke crashed hard in the car, so Steve let him nap until it was time for his first art class at Fleisher Art Memorial. It was hard to wake him up, but he had a great time making a drawing and a Captain America puppet. His teacher, Mister Storm, said, "he has a really cool drawing style." When they got home, Zeeke earned some television time by scrubbing the front stoop.
Sunday, we met Jen & the twins for the Family Nature Hike. This time around, there was a demonstration of how to make a fire without matches or flint. Zeeke was riveted. After the hike and some smores, we picked up Kim and went to the Mount Airy Village Fair for lunch. Zeeke had fun at their toy horse rodeo, then it was back to Jen & Kim's house so that the boys could play. That night, our friends Maripat, Dudley & Sadie had us over for dinner to commiserate about the tough week of kindergarten. As we were walking home, we stopped to let a group of teenagers pass by just as Zeeke was delivering a detailed description of some elaborate invention he wants us to build and one of the girls turned, eyes wide, and declared, "He talks fancy!"
Conversations with Zeeke:
A proclamation from the prophet Ezekiel:
"You have to pass through The Land of the Lost before you can get to Heaven."