Nope. Don't want to.

Jonah is 5. Brilliant boy.
Interested in many things, knowledgeable about a broad spectrum of topics.

He didn't develop all those interests and enthusiasm for knowing things from being in school. He's 5 and this is his first experience with school. He's been at home since he was a little guy.

He's the way he is because his family has noticed his interests and has done whatever they need to do to help him develop those things. They take him a lot of places, they read to him, he has his own library card.

He's also like allll the other boys.
Not a lot of impulse control.
Can't keep his hands to himself and often behaves inappropriately. For example, yesterday afternoon, he thought it would be a good idea to splash water all over Brady while they were washing their hands.

Brady didn't even tell me about it, his teacher happened to be walking past on her way out the door and noticed the activity level at the sink. While I was giving Brady his afternoon bracelet, she stopped and told him that he should tell me what had happened, then she just told me herself.

So I went to the LEGO rug where Jonah was creating a tower.
I asked him about it. He admitted to doing it, but he wasn't sure why he had.

I told him, "Splashing water on our friends isn't a good use of our time. It's messy and when you put your hands in the bottom of the sink, you're putting your hands into the germs that everyone else has washed off their hands. Pretty gross, don't you think? But I don't make a kid apologize."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Well, if I put on my grumpy face and say, 'Jonah! Say you're sorry!' are you really going to be sorry?"

He grinned and said, "No, I guess not."

"So I don't make you apologize, but if you want to catch up with Brady and let him know that you're not going to splash him with water when it's handwashing time, that would be fine."

I did see them talking to each other a few minutes later, and they gave each other a high five before going off to separate activities.

Last week, I blew the whistle when it was time to come in from the playground and Jonah ran the other way. John, one of the other K age boys, is just as impulse-driven as Jonah. HE ran with Jonah as far and as fast as he could. And then there's Tommy, (you remember him, right?) who's very easily led. Tommy decided he was going to run away, too. So the other 14 kids were ready to go inside, and my trio of little weasels decided they weren't going in.

Even when I was young and still had working knees I wouldn't have been able to chase down three five year old boys. So we just left them on the playground and went into the building.

At least they thought that was what we did.

What actually happened was that my assistant took the kids who had lined up and went around the corner into the building. I walked around the corner, too, but stayed just out of sight. There was no one else on the playground, it's fenced and the gate was past me in the other direction, so no chance of someone entering the playground without my seeing them. The little weasels were perfectly safe.

I waited about 10 seconds or so, and peeked around the corner. They were huddled in a little group having an urgent conversation. I stepped out where they could see me and blew my whistle again, only louder and longer. And put on my grumpy mom face.

"GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!"

The two ringleader types swaggered a bit as they headed my way, but Tommy was crushed because I'd raised my voice. I don't like to yell at them. Most of the time when I raise my voice it's because my voice needs to get there faster than I can.

Things like a kid getting ready to hit another kid or if someone is lying down on the floor in the gym ("Sit up! If you want to lie down, go to the side by the wall, I don't want you to get kicked in the head!")

This was a grumpy, loud voice on purpose.
Tommy started crying as all three of them approached, and was really broken up over the whole thing.

When they got to me, I told them, "When I blow the whistle, it's time to go in. You don't know if there's an emergency or something else going on, and you don't get to decide to run off the other direction. This is NOT okay. Don't do this again."

Poor Tommy. I broke his little heart. I had him come sit with me until he calmed down a little, but I felt bad that he'd taken it personally. Not my fault, really... but when it's time to go in, I'm sure he won't do that again.

I don't usually talk to parents about anything their kids have done that isn't okay, mostly because a lot of what kids do is simply age appropriate behavior and it's usually self-correcting. But when it comes to safety issues, we do have conversations.

So I told both dads who picked up exactly that.

"Not wanting to come in after outside time is a thing a lot of 5 year olds do. It's not unusual or a behavioral issue. But if we have to evacuate the playground due to an emergency, I have to have them respond immediately. I can't have them run off in the opposite direction when they hear the whistle, so that's why we're having this conversation. I've already talked to your son, but I need to have you do it as well. My number one job is making sure they're safe, and if they won't come when I call them, I can't keep them safe."

Both dads understood immediately and said they'd talk to their kids.

I didn't tell Tommy's mom because I was on my break when she came to pick him up. I also figured that he wouldn't ever pull that particular trick again considering how devastated he was when I raised my voice. He's just a little follower, and hopefully he will follow someone who isn't running the opposite direction when it's time to go in.

The next afternoon, when I blew my whistle, Jonah and John were the first to run and line up. I'm not sure what their respective parents said to them, but it was effective.

Tommy had been sticking close to me all afternoon anyway, periodically asking for his mom and hugs. He wanted to sit on my lap, but I explained that I have to get up and down a lot, so that wouldn't work.

"You can sit here right next to me on the bench, though."

I sit in a swivel chair with wheels at the end of the cafeteria table. I am not able to get up and down from the benches very well. So having him sit by me allows physical space, which is important with little folks. Boundaries. Yes, I am a safe adult, but what if they think every adult in a uniform shirt is a safe adult?

I mean, we *should* be, but sadly, a lot aren't. Did you know that the average child molester caught has molested 18 kids before actually being caught? Not a good statistic.

The rest of the week the kids have all lined up and gone into the building in a good amount of time.

We did a fire drill last week, and I didn't let them know it was coming, since it was our 2nd one of the year. They did a great job getting out the door (about 20 seconds) and lined up for roll call at the fence about 15 seconds after that. Only problem with not letting them know it was going to happen? Bailey wet her pants. She always waits until the last possible second to head for the bathroom. She has to change her clothes at least twice a week.

I was going to speculate about what's going on with Jonah in this post... going to have to do that next time.

Gotta go finish getting things cleaned up. Bob will be here tomorrow.