::sigh:::

Purple prose for today?
Ha.

Full day programs Wednesday thru Friday this week. Parent conferences when I was a kid were evenings... but now they run them all day long for three days. I used to think teachers didn't need all that time. Couldn't understand why they needed 'all that planning time'.

But you know, with my little program, I use a LOT of planning time. I also work on the weekends. At night. Gathering supplies from various boxes stowed in the Momcave. Surfing the internet for project ideas.

My scheduled work hours are larger than the ones I had before, the company I worked for had a collective shit fit if a person worked five minutes longer than their scheduled shift. Now, I have an extra 30 minutes most mornings and an extra 15 in the evenings after kids leave. I confess to working off the clock in the afternoons, though. I usually arrive by 2:15 for a shift that's not scheduled to begin until 2:45. I don't actually write down my time until 2:30 or even 2:45, however. It's odd to be respected enough that they are allowing planning time, though. Since they're sort of disorganized in other ways. Haha.. 'sort of'. Now that's funny.

It gives me time to make copies, take out the trash, sort through more of the conglomeration of crap in the back room, find out what's for snack and get that going... just preparation time. And I only have nine kids. I can't imagine having to teach 29 completely different individuals how to do math, how to read.

So I had Billy for a full day Wednesday. And it was just as much of a treat as you'd imagine. He can't stand NOT being the center of attention, so he does things to piss the other kids off. Even though I know he's working on that negative attention thing and that he has issues, it still pisses me off.

On Tuesday evening, I was set to talk with his mom when she picked up. She usually picks up about five minutes before six. Of course. But this time, six rolled around. Then, 10 after. Then a quarter after.

The good side (if there is one) is that when it's just the two of us, he's not such a handful. (Handful is a euphemism for pain in the ass... just because he's a pain in the ass doesn't mean I don't care about him, though. I haven't given up yet, although I suspect it doesn't matter, he's not going to appreciate that fact.)

Finally at 6:30, a full half hour after closing time, some guy came to the back door. When I opened it, Billy said, "Oh, hi Jim."

And Jim said, "I'm here for Billy."

So I asked for his ID and pulled Billy's file. Where there were two authorized-to-pick-up adults... Billy's mom and Billy's dad.

I said to the guy, "You're not on his pickup list."

Immediately he got a petulant, childish pout and said, "Well I hope I didn't waste my time driving all the way out here."

I told him, "I will call Mom."
He held out his phone (he hadn't looked away from it yet) and said, "Here, it's 3."

I explained that I could not use his phone, that I had to look up the number. He rolled his eyes.

I called Billy's mom and she said that yes, she had sent Jim and that she 'had an emergency' so could not pick up. Would have been nice if she'd taken the 10 seconds required to call me before six and let me know that she was going to
A: Be late and
B: Send a new person to pick Billy up.

So I sent him out the door without being able to talk to Mom.

On Wednesday morning, she thought she was going to just run in and out. And I stopped her and told her what had happened the day before. Not a happy mama. She told him, "I am so disappointed that you lied to me. You don't get a sticker for yesterday at all!"

Now I'm not in the business of telling people how to motivate their kids. And if she thinks stickers are going to work for him, then bless her heart. But he has some serious stuff going on, I think, and I'm not sure anything is going to work. I'm 99.9% certain that stickers won't help at all.
::shrug::

There's a box to check on our program enrollment forms that gives me permission to discuss a child with school staff. She checked that box. So I've been in communication with the principal and Billy's teacher. I was hoping for a couple things. One, that his teacher (who has been his teacher for almost two years) has some tricks and tips that work. I have seen her interactions with him. He adores her and wants to make her happy, she is calm and smiling and very kind to him. Her tone of voice is much more mild than mine. I don't know how she does it, really. When she comes down to my program to bring him his forgotten lunch box or his beloved Spider man coat, he lights up. He wants to show her the projects he's working on, or the marble run or the Bionicles. He would be happy to have her there all afternoon.

My other thought was that if he has consistency between school and my program it might help, too. And one always includes the principal in the loop, that's part of my nefarious plan to become a fixture at the school. Reliable, always there, always performing as expected. Let's go with drinking fountain rather than toilet, though, okay? :-D

I do expect respectful behavior all the time, but that really doesn't seem to matter to him. It would be easier for me if I were *not* so vigilant, but I don't think relaxing my expectations for him is a good idea on any level.

So if it wasn't okay yesterday to take someone's toys while they were eating snacks, it's not okay today, either. And since your plan involves skipping snack time so you can try to steal the Bionicle or some of the parts from it, I am going to close the Bionicle area while we eat. "So you may as well come join us, Billy."

It seems to help when he eats at regular intervals. He's so full of energy and general busy-ness that he really doesn't slow down much. I've noticed that he behaves more...evenly when he's not going too long between food breaks. He doesn't usually eat his whole lunch at lunch time, his teacher says that he's very social at the table and also, like most other little boys, wants to hurry so he can go outside to play.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him. I am documenting his behavior, talking to his mom, keeping an eye on things.

And on Wednesday morning, he told me with great pride, "I've been kicked out of every day care I've ever been in."

Huh. I wonder why.