Seeing Red (Dots that is)

Today was another "red dot" day for Nicky. His teacher sends home a colored dot each day on a calendar sheet in his folder and we have to initial it each day. Green for a good day, Yellow for some difficulty, and Red for a bad day. He's had a red dot every day since going back to school Tuesday.

For a while we tried to tie rewards and punishments to the dots. But after a while it just seemed to be pretty pointless. I've lectured him about specific issues when they bother to include a note describing a particular behavior. But without some more specific feedback from the teacher it's hard to really tell what he's doing well and where he's struggling.

None of his behaviors are aggressive or outright defiant. They're just the same issues we have at home, which are even more annoying at school I'm sure. He's off-task, easily distracted and can't focus worth a damn. We did resolve the bullying issue I think. No complaints on that front, although I should ask him pointedly about it soon.

But right now I'm waiting for the teacher to create a daily behavior sheet that will help us pinpoint specific times of the day or activities where he has the most trouble so that we can be more specific in our feedback to him. So far they say they have a laminated one they use with a dry erase marker each day, but that the copier is broken so they don't have ones to send home. THIS IS NOT HELPING ME. That's been the answer since I spoke with the teacher in early December. Hopefully the copier will be fixed soon. Otherwise I'll ask her to email me a copy of the form and I'll make her some copies and send them to school for them to use. I mean, REALLY?

Sorry. A bit frustrated.

I just spent a good hour of my evening filling out evaluations for Nicky's school evaluations they're re-doing. These are the ones we met about back in October. Apparently he hasn't been enough of a behavior problem for them to be finished yet. Hopefully soon though. I think it will help if we have another meeting and really discuss what will help him. Here it is the middle of the year, I think it's past time we set some goals and make a plan for him.