Abhay in trouble!

Abhay has been getting into trouble quite often in school this year! Well, until recently, we always believed that our seven year old was a docile kid at class. But a wake- up call came in the form of our last PTM meeting a few weeks back when we had to face the reality of Abhay's short attention span in class (particularly math class!), or his constant conflicts with his "gang" of boys in class! Always known as Miss Goody two-shoes in school, I can't believe that my son has earned the infamous reputation of being the trouble maker in class! We always knew that he is someone who is by nature easily distracted, but I guess we never knew his naughty side, especially when in a group! Off late Abhay has also been complaining of being troubled by his friends-turned foes or foes-turned friends. While we know that it isn't something to fret over too much (not yet!), we are also aware that it doesn't take long for something naughty to turn into something nasty and hence raised a concern with the school authorities.  While we can work on his concentration skills, there is only so much we can do when it comes to conflict management as he needs to be able to resolve his issues on his own. After all, we can’t lives their lives for them, now can we? We hope that the school will be able to help us on this front. Meanwhile ….there is no escape for Abhay from maths or his maths teacher (who reminds me of my own Maths teacher!)…..and no escape for me from the next PTM for which I have my fingers crossed already!:-)

Today I had Abhay read about a boy who is always getting into some trouble or the other – the Nipper Mcfee series an Early Reader series by Rose Impey and illustrated by Melanie Williamson. Today he is "In trouble with Growler Grimes", a teacher at school. Nipper as usual oversleeps due to which he is late for school. As he dashes off to school, he is tormented by his traditional rivals, the rats who land him in trouble with his school teacher, Mr. Grimes. Nipper tries to plead with Growler Grimes that it is not his fault, but since it’s his third time in trouble this week, Growler Grimes is sure to dole out his punishment that is much worse than the cane or the slipper. So for the rest of day, Nipper is asked to sit in the baby class, serve lunch to the teachers and spend all afternoon in a sewing class. Everybody, including Nipper thought that he would die out of shame. But Nipper put his sewing experience to good use and got back at his tormentors and sends them packing! Nipper thus learned that even a sewing  lesson could be useful! So Abhay……all experiences, good or bad including conflict with friends, or run-ins with teachers, or adverse remarks at parent teacher meetings are learning experiences in the long run...you may even have a good laugh over it! :-)