Big time

Second grade, seven years old and the nurturing is over. The boy gets graded on his school work and will receive a letter grade instead of excellent/satisfactory/unsatisfactory. I can tell a huge improvement in his work. His behavior? Not so much. We get notes home from the teacher every day- the boy doesn't listen! He was misbehaving in line! He won't stop talking! Please talk to him! Might be time to have a talk with her. Good luck lady!

We're not throwing in the towel, but this is something we've struggled with since he was in preschool and if the school counselor, principal, district counselor, and pediatrician were unable to provide helpful advice, well, talking to him isn't going to make an impact. We've talked until we were blue in the face, taken everything away, paid for good behavior- he just does not respond to the typical reward/punishment theory.

Baseball season has begun and instead of the coach gently lolling the ball for them to hit, a machine pitches at 35 mph. Instead of rotating the coveted game ball each game so every player receives one, the recipient has to earn it. Instead of rotating positions so that each player gets good experience, the coaches decide the best player for each position and they keep that position the entire season. Instead of letting each player bat each inning, players will get outs and scores will be kept.

Welcome to the big time!