(Red) Bucket List

In kindergarten, at the school my kids go to, every day Ashe comes home with a colored bucket. If he had a good day, his bucket would be colored green. If he was talked to by the teacher once or twice, it would be yellow. Red is a bad bad day. Ashe never has come home with a red bucket. Until Friday.

I received an email from his teacher around lunch time to expect a red bucket. I was appalled by her recounting of his behavior; talking loudly out of turn, being insolent and rude, and refusing to follow directions. I get we all have bad days. But this was pretty bad.

I *do* know that over the past few weeks he has been a little more belligerent at home, and we didn't know why. I do know that he casually mentioned that he's not playing with his friends at recess anymore because they are playing Skylander and he's not interested. He made it clear it doesn't bother him, but with this happening around the same time as his new 'tude, I wonder if it's actually bothering him more than he realizes.

I brought up the lack of playmates to his teacher and asked her to keep an eye out while we would deal consequences at home for his misbehavior. In the end I sat him down for a long quiet talk about his attitude lately and how we weren't mad, but very disappointed in his behavior at school. Instead of timeouts (which don't phase him in the slightest) or sending him to his room with no toys (he can keep himself entertained for hours with a rubber band) we decided that instead he would write out a letter of apology to his teacher for his actions. And he did, taking care to spell his words properly and with his best handwriting. He actually apologized to me on his own (GASP) and sad h wouldn't do it again.

We'll see how long that lasts but maybe the red bucket wasn't as bad as we though?