Thank goodness for winter break

[sairy_gamp]

My sweet son has picked up some rather negative behaviors (hitting, strong defiance, etc.) in his first semester at Kindergarten in his new Waldorf school. Two previous years of Waldorf at a different school plus a year of parent-tot and these problems were not happening like this. The climax came when he got sent to the office Monday.

Six years of work and love undone by negative influences from elsewhere. So disheartening.

I'm just glad to have him to ourselves for the next 3 weeks to try and find the gentle and charismatic boy that is still in there. The best I'm coming up with is to be sure to stay engaged with him while we're together over the break, participate in his play, do more gentle activities, avoid getting wrapped up in my own hobbies and chores too much while we're together.

"Adventures in Gentle Discipline" hasn't been much of a help thru this unfortunately.

Anyone else faced with deprogramming their Kingergartener I'm happy to have your advice or experiences.

[harrietsmama]

I hear ya, I've been having to deal with this since my kids started school, their dad won't let me homeschool which is my preference.

We did filial play therapy for awhile and it is pretty cool. You could probably do some of this with him while he's home. Basically give him a half hour where he is totally in charge of play and follow along with what he does. The idea is to have a specific space, have some character dolls, baby dolls, maybe a kitchen, desk or table, ours had a big sand table thing filled with beans, a bean bag for a cozy cuddle spot etc. The purpose is to give him a chance to show you what's going on in his mind through play and acknowledge what you see. No corrections or leading or suggesting, anything goes unless someone can be hurt.

In your situation, hopefully he would express what it's like to be around this kind of talk perhaps in a role playing way and see what he is experiencing. Then later you can use that to have a chat about how people talk to each other and how certain types of talk feel good and others may not.

I dunno if that helps, but I thought I would throw it out there.