Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Beauty of Normalcy

I'm absolutely shocked that Max had a good day today. I hate saying stuff like that, but after a weekend of strep, scarlet fever, actual fever, Advil with artificial flavor, and antibiotics, I was sure that a return to school would be disastrous. It wasn't. In fact, according to Ms. Sarah and Ms. Meagan, it was a great day.

This afternoon, I was waiting for a student to finish a test -- I'd already logged off my work computer and I was staring at the wall when I noticed my FG behavior inventory -- the one I filled out about 9 weeks ago. When I looked back over it, it was amazing to see that so many behaviors had been completely eliminated. Others had become the exception, not the rule.

One thing my parents have said several times is that I need to remember that Max is still a four year-old boy. FG has the tendency to prompt me to forget Max's age in favor of an ideal, a perfectly behaved boy who does nothing wrong. For the most part, Max actually has become that boy -- the only time he falters are in situations where he's anxious (uses his chewie, turtle, or other self-soother) or when he's excited and happy, where he goes up a notch in hyper behavior and will often zoom around like a car, honking and running into walls. I hate that a lot of people see these behaviors more than the every day normalcy -- around others, he's far more likely to be anxious or excited.

Regardless, I know we've made tremendous progress. We've introduced some Stage Two with good results. And today we found out that daycare is going to transition Max from the 3 year old room to the 4 year old room. This is something we never thought we'd see -- and the school is actually prompting it, meaning that they think he's ready. I really, really hope they're right.

1 comment:

  1. I'm new to your blog and extremely new to Feingold however I'm not sure I agree with everything feingold says. I too believe boys are suppose to be boys! I thought running their cars was second nature ! Mine sure did that and it was co poetry normal society has forgot how little ppl should act, they should be very active and rowdy at times they need lots of outside play to burn off steam. I'm homeschool my three children and I will be honest boys dont get to be boys as they should!! My dd has severe reflux and we just heard of Feingold and it was reccomended to us. I love the no preservatives and things but I'm not sure I agree with the all the hyper ness is because of food..kids NEED to be kids sometimes !
    Joy

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