I don't know if today went better. I was thrilled when he ran ahead of me into the church. He was shy at meeting new people, but I think it helped that we were early and the church was nearly empty when we arrived. He met about five adults and three kids, so I hope we can get him back in the door to see them again.
Today he wasn't scared - he was just plain disobedient. He answered every adult with "no." I sat with him in the empty multi-purpose room after breakfast so he could have some unsocial time before class. He kept hitting me with his stuffed bear so I took it away from him and held it above my head. I kept saying, "If I give it to you, will you hit me with it?" He kept saying, "Yes, I will hit you with it." Then he started screaming, so I said "If you're going to scream, you have to do it outside" and dragged him outside where he punched me in the stomach and rammed me with his head. I fended him off and balanced the bear on my head, looking like an idiot I'm sure, though a couple people came over and told me I was doing great!
I was looking for his class and another lady was helping me and he would not stand up, so I had the lady carry my purse while I dragged him by his arms and of course he was like "this is so fun!" He wanted me to carry him - well, I'll carry him if he needs comfort, but not if he's purposely acting two years old to make me mad. My arms are sore from restraining him yesterday and they got a workout today too!
All the kids were in the sanctuary and he wanted to go in and just stand in the back. So we did, but then he wanted to leave after a minute. He didn't want to join his kindergarten class when they came out. So I left him with one of the workers and just walked away. He ran after me - "Where are you going?" "To your kindergarten class." "Well, wait for me!"
We got him in the classroom, but then he started running around and running out of the room. So I said maybe we'd try the class again later and we were going to calm down in another part of the church. He kept running away from me. The children's director tried to talk to him and he just kept defying her. She whispered to me that perhaps he's had enough for today and I should take him home. We got there at 8 am; he made it till 9:30, which is pretty good since yesterday he lasted for half an hour.
Pray that tomorrow he will be neither frightened nor insolent!
I'm amazed at the children's staff at your church being so understanding. I could see people getting annoyed about him being there. It definitely sounds like progress to me! I hope things go better today! When I was working at the preschool in Gig Harbor, we had a little boy join halfway through the year, and it started really rough - we had several days where we had to hold him down waiting for his mom (who wouldn't answer her phone) to come pick him up, because he was throwing chairs and biting and kicking like crazy. But he got better as he got used to everything and started to understand the rules. Praying that C has at least one good day before the end of VBS!
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