Parenting a challenging kid. Am I doing this right?

Aspieration
Tue, 22 Sep 2015 17:20:54 +0000

Turned out the water mishap was a genuine accident. He picked up his neighbor’s water bottle to look through the bottom and pushed a button which released the water which spouted on his neighbor. He was very apologetic about it. The girl was all hugs at dismissal yesterday. I dropped by the school late this morning for a surprise visit just to check in and he was in the main office… as a reward (!) for complying with all of his work this morning. (They have a ‘time in’ lego table to reward good behavior.)

So it was nice to have some good news but I’m not resting! We are going to really dig into conversation/social skills training and are in the process of getting him signed up for a weekly group therapy class at NYU.

This morning he was chattering all about using magnets to propel cars; he is constantly thinking about ways to eliminate pollution (especially combustion exhaust). For someone who loves to play with ideas, I feel like he needs to be much more comfortable listening to other’s perspective. He gets very fixated about his initial ideas. Has a hard time playing jazz with ideas. On it.

So my mothering priorities with this child, in order of importance, are:

Basics (hugs, enough sleep, nutritious food (he's a vegetarian owing to ethical considerations for animals), more hugs, fresh air and nature, fun breaks like Maker Faire and pumpkin picking. EXTRA HUGS.)

School behavior (basics of classroom behavior/focus/attention, respecting his teachers, do work asked of him without fussing, get along with other kids at recess)

School curriculum (support him keeping up with the academics via homework, etc. Was going to hire a tutor but am going to take this on myself, adjust work hours)

CBT (support school behavior - working on strategies his therapist teaches him to mitigate anxiety)

Social skills training (support behavior - setting this up now, formally)

Music (voice and piano - weekly lessons, practice 3x week for 20 mins or so, occasional recital).

Try Something New (this month we're trying a CTY online class - a reading class about robots).

Playtime (hang out with brother, reading books, legos, thinker linkers, magnatiles, playing with a hose on the deck, etc.)

Am I missing anything?