My son Calvin

Every day last year, when I asked Soren what he did or learned at preschool he would say something like, "We talked about dinosaurs." Or "we learned about purple dinosaurs." ect. Every time he said he only learned about dinosaurs. Whatever. It is preschool. He is 4. No big deal. Well, first day of kindergarten I pick him up and I ask,

Q "How was school?"

S "Good."

Q "What did you do?"

S "We talked about dinosaurs."

What?! He had all summer to forget this little answer but no luck. We are back to the dinosaurs. It has been 3 weeks and that is still more or less what he says. There was once when he gave a different answer. He said they ate pickles and marshmallows on pepperoni pizza. - Still no where close to truth.......I am assuming. Today he actually volunteered information about school.

S "Guess what I did today?"

Doth my ears deceive me? He actually wants to tell me something about his day? I excitedly say, "What did you do today?"

S "I rode on the back of a dinosaur. It was just bones. I rode on the bones of a dinosaur."

This is when it struck me. Soren is like Calvin in Calvin and Hobbs. He must be day dreaming all day about dinosaurs. So for him, that is all he did that day. Awesome. I live with Calvin. Have you ever noted the state Calvin's mother is usually in?! Yeah, I do live with Calvin. Soren is less malicious then Calvin, but Xander fills that gap. Xander enjoys a good torture activity for some poor soul.

So realizing this potential I decided to ask an important question.

Q "Soren, do you go to time out very often at school?" You see, I rationalized that if he is like Calvin, he will be in time out very often.

S "Yeah, I go to time out everywhere I go everyday"

Q "What do you mean?"

S "When I am in class I go to time out. When I am at lunch I go to time out. When I am at recess I go to time out."

Q "Why do you go to time out?"

S "Because I don't follow direction. I don't obey."

Okay, this is probably true. The boy becomes deaf whenever convenient. Just 20 minutes before this conversation Soren comes up with the great idea to make chocolate milk and starts making it without asking. I didn't want him to make chocolate milk because he just ate a brownie. I am 4 feet away and I tell him to stop.

Q "Soren no chocolate milk. Soren stop. Soren I don't want you to have that. Soren stop." But he just kept on going until Ryan took it away from him. At which point he says,

S "Sorry, my ears didn't work."

-Uh huh. He loves playing the innocent victim. And so I fear that Soren is actually telling the truth about his time out activities. In fact, the other day I got a message from someone at school saying Soren and another boy were playing too rough and they had been warned several times but didn't stop and so they are both missing recess. With this new added information I wondered more about this phone call. I originally thought, okay, no big deal that happens at home too. But now I wonder how many times has he been doing that. Are phone calls to home not that common? Should I be reading more into this. Oh dear.

Back to the above conversation I searched for more information.

Q "Why don't you follow directions? Do you not want to?"

S "No, I want to follow directions very much."

He said this so sweetly and sincerely it almost broke my heart.

Q "So why don't you?"

S "I don't hear her." - we have had his hearing checked several times even at the request of his preschool teacher. His ears hear sound fine.

Q "The Dr. says your ears hear just fine. You just aren't paying attention so that is why you can't hear her. We are going to have to think of something to help you."

........I am still thinking. How do you teach this to a 5 year old? Uhg. I don't know what to do.

To the teacher we go. What will she say.........

9/28 Update. When I asked if Soren has gone to time out the teacher replied, "We don't have time out." After a more in depth discussion I concluded that Soren was average in his behavior and verified it by saying, "So what you are saying is Soren is still in the realm of normalcy?" I guess that is weird to say because she laughed and bit and said yes. Sweet! Now, how to I code what he tells me about his day?