Kindergarten Success!

My Tiny Boy Human has ADHD and ODD (oppositional defiant disorder), making him very difficult to deal with when he does not have his medication. I did not want to medicate him at first; I tried all sorts of natural ways to help him with his inability to focus: herbs, diet restrictions, etc…and nothing worked. Once I decided to try the medication, I wanted to kick myself in the rear for not giving it to him sooner! The change in him was immediate, and it was a lifesaver! He was able to listen better and follow directions, so he was no longer getting in trouble. I was no longer yelling at him or pulling my hair out in clumps or crying in a corner because I was losing my mind. We no longer had shouting matches which resulted in tears….things were all together much easier, and our house became much happier!

Tiny Boy Human started Kindergarten and seemed to be having trouble adjusting to school. Thankfully, his teacher has her own children with ADHD and knew immediately that his trouble stemmed from his medication not “kicking in” until nearly lunch time, making morning learning time a struggle for both him and her. So his pediatrician changed his medication to something that would be faster acting. Little did I know, the new medication he was prescribed was only going to help with the attention deficit part of his disorder, only to make his ODD worse. He was going to the office daily and I am pretty sure he broke some sort of record when he, my 5 YEAR OLD, was suspended from school for 2 days on only his third week of KINDERGARTEN. No friends, you are not hallucinating; you read that correctly. He was removed from school for 2 days due to his poor behavior, of which he really had no control over. It was heartbreaking, as his mother, to see him struggling so much when I knew that inside he wanted to be good but his brain just was not functioning the way it was supposed to.

But the good news is, we changed his medication back to the original with the plan of giving it to him much earlier to give it time to absorb into his system so he would be ready for class right away! And it worked! He no longer has any issues at school and he is thriving! He tells me every day how much he loves going to school, riding the bus, and even homework! That’s right readers, he loves his homework!

Tiny Boy Human got his first report card and out of 25 graded areas, he got 21 S's (standard met--highest marks), 3 N's (needs improvement) and only 1 U (standard not met). He also received +'s (highest markings) in all 8 graded areas for work habits and study skills! And then, he read a book to me:

"This is my yellow bear. This is my red bear. This is my purple bear. This is my blue bear. This is my brown bear. I have many bears."

He read it all, all by himself, and only needed help with the word "many." He has been reading a book to me every night; it is a little bittersweet to go from reading to him while in our glider, to him reading to me, but I am so proud!

We had "student lead" parent teacher conferences this week. In terms of his scholastic performance, he's averaging a "B" level. He knows all of his letters and numbers, and writes them all very well. He reads at level 2 (out of 3!), he knows a lot of his sight words, and the only thing he doesn't do well with is rhyming; he thinks rhyming means the words have to start with the same letter instead of end in the same sound, he just doesn't get it yet. If he can figure out rhyming he would be one of the top students in his class! His behavior is awesome when he has his medication, and even when he doesn't have it (for various reasons we really do not want to get into) and has trouble controlling himself and focusing, his teacher says he is "one of the sweetest kids I have ever worked with and we have the closest bond out of all of my students." And that was proven when he was asked what his favorite part of school was and he replied, "being with *Mrs. Teacher!"