<SIZE size="125">We have had a fairly busy couple of weeks. Kayla is only in school one day a week on Fridays and is in daycare full time the rest of the week. She meets with the child psychologist in her office on Tuesdays and then again at school on Fridays. So far its been working out quite well. She does her schoolwork through the week, just like the other kids, but is in a more constructive environment with daycare and they have been amazing helping me through this.[/FONT]</SIZE>
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<SIZE size="125">We're struggling with is sleeping. We’ve really gotten a consistent bedtime routine but she is up usually once through the night and is having nightmares at least 3 nights/wk. On occasion she wakes up screaming and crying and takes a bit to get settled down again. Fridays (her school day) are usually the roughest to get through if she’s not slept well the night before. At daycare, they allow her to have down time but at school she’s expected to follow the rules (sit in her seat, not disrupt the other kids, not be difficult, etc) and are more structured. She needs the structure, but at the same time, when she’s tired she can be really difficult and spends more time being disciplined for poor behaviour than she does paying attention and doing school things. But then if she sleeps well, she is a great kid for the most part and the day goes rather smoothly. Friday was just one of those days. I no sooner went in to see her off to daycare and meet with her psychologist and her teacher pulled me aside to tell me she’d “had a rough day today”. Kayla looked at me with daggers in her eyes so I interrupted her teacher to tell her she needed to get to the bus and I’d see her in a little bit, gave her a hug and got her on the bus. I really didn’t want her listening to what a horrible kid she is and I knew she was tired and can be oppositional. I told her teacher that I was very sorry for her behaviour and told her we’ve been working on making better choices but that she spent much of the night up crying and we’re going through a tough sleeping phase right now. She told me that Kayla had spent a good deal of the day in a chair in the corner and her teacher had tried and tried to talk to her and she’d tell her teacher what she thought she wanted to hear, but then go right back to doing what it was that got her into trouble in the first place. At one point she was kicking the desk infront of her and the boy that was sitting infront of her asked her to stop and she kept on doing it. The teacher had come up to her and asked her if she needed to have some time in the corner and she said “no” and her teacher had asked that she stop kicking this boys desk because its bothering him and she said “okay” and no sooner did her teacher walk away, and she was kicking his desk again. She asked me “what works with her because we’re really hitting a roadblock and I cant seem to get through to her”. I can appreciate her point as she has 20 kids to keep a handle on and cant be spending the entire day fighting with Kayla. At one point she called in one of the aides (not the one that generally works with Kayla but a different one as Kayla’s aide was away which probably didn’t help matters). They kept her in from recess to have a discussion with her and remind her of the rules but that didn’t seem to help either. The difficulty is I could opt not to send her to school, but she does need to attend at least one day a week so allowing her to miss isn’t the answer either. She no sooner got to daycare, threw a fit, and fell asleep, so I know that was a contributing factor. To make matters more difficult, school starts at 8:10am which for us is early. We start getting ready for bed at 6:30 and even then, having her in bed and sleeping by 8 is generally not realistic. It's borderline crazy, honestly. </SIZE>
<SIZE size="125">I did have a good meeting with the child psychologist on Friday though and it really gave me somewhat of a wakeup call. I think she has a lot of good points when it comes to Kayla and while we're not entirely sure how to "fix" things for her, it is nice to have somebody that knows her understand our situation and what is going on. Amy</SIZE>
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<SIZE size="125">We're struggling with is sleeping. We’ve really gotten a consistent bedtime routine but she is up usually once through the night and is having nightmares at least 3 nights/wk. On occasion she wakes up screaming and crying and takes a bit to get settled down again. Fridays (her school day) are usually the roughest to get through if she’s not slept well the night before. At daycare, they allow her to have down time but at school she’s expected to follow the rules (sit in her seat, not disrupt the other kids, not be difficult, etc) and are more structured. She needs the structure, but at the same time, when she’s tired she can be really difficult and spends more time being disciplined for poor behaviour than she does paying attention and doing school things. But then if she sleeps well, she is a great kid for the most part and the day goes rather smoothly. Friday was just one of those days. I no sooner went in to see her off to daycare and meet with her psychologist and her teacher pulled me aside to tell me she’d “had a rough day today”. Kayla looked at me with daggers in her eyes so I interrupted her teacher to tell her she needed to get to the bus and I’d see her in a little bit, gave her a hug and got her on the bus. I really didn’t want her listening to what a horrible kid she is and I knew she was tired and can be oppositional. I told her teacher that I was very sorry for her behaviour and told her we’ve been working on making better choices but that she spent much of the night up crying and we’re going through a tough sleeping phase right now. She told me that Kayla had spent a good deal of the day in a chair in the corner and her teacher had tried and tried to talk to her and she’d tell her teacher what she thought she wanted to hear, but then go right back to doing what it was that got her into trouble in the first place. At one point she was kicking the desk infront of her and the boy that was sitting infront of her asked her to stop and she kept on doing it. The teacher had come up to her and asked her if she needed to have some time in the corner and she said “no” and her teacher had asked that she stop kicking this boys desk because its bothering him and she said “okay” and no sooner did her teacher walk away, and she was kicking his desk again. She asked me “what works with her because we’re really hitting a roadblock and I cant seem to get through to her”. I can appreciate her point as she has 20 kids to keep a handle on and cant be spending the entire day fighting with Kayla. At one point she called in one of the aides (not the one that generally works with Kayla but a different one as Kayla’s aide was away which probably didn’t help matters). They kept her in from recess to have a discussion with her and remind her of the rules but that didn’t seem to help either. The difficulty is I could opt not to send her to school, but she does need to attend at least one day a week so allowing her to miss isn’t the answer either. She no sooner got to daycare, threw a fit, and fell asleep, so I know that was a contributing factor. To make matters more difficult, school starts at 8:10am which for us is early. We start getting ready for bed at 6:30 and even then, having her in bed and sleeping by 8 is generally not realistic. It's borderline crazy, honestly. </SIZE>
<SIZE size="125">I did have a good meeting with the child psychologist on Friday though and it really gave me somewhat of a wakeup call. I think she has a lot of good points when it comes to Kayla and while we're not entirely sure how to "fix" things for her, it is nice to have somebody that knows her understand our situation and what is going on. Amy</SIZE>