School, Attitude, and Online Gaming

Online games on his iPhone

William8 has been more and more grumpy at home lately – snapping at his sister and being really rude to both his mum and me.

We thought it was linked with boredom at school, and we took steps to ensure that he is well paced at school. He’s now engaged at year 4 reading and mathematics, and has just started with an online service called mathletics, which has been brilliant. Yet, his behaviour still shows some underlying problem that we have not yet addressed.

Some of the possible issues off the top of my head.

• His allergies could be preventing him from getting a proper night’s rest.
• His playing DS – even for the short time we give him – wrecks his attitude.
• His best friend at school has a famously mercurial temper.
• He’s getting sick of my non-negotiable ‘discipline/rules’ on certain issues.
• He thinks his friends have a better life than he has.

We have taken a few simple steps to trying to address some of these issues over the last two weeks. Last night he had about a half hour session, mapping out difficulties he’s going to face  if he keeps allowing himself to descend temperamentally. Yes, I think a lot of it is that he is allowing himself to get angry, frustrated and upset with small things. I also think that he has to be able to understand issues of what motivates this family, and the things we have to do versus the things he wants to do.

I sincerely think that this is not DS or iPhone or computer time, it is about overall tolerance to mundane tasks. We’re trying to be understanding and we are thinking of both positive reinforcements and negative consequences. Hopefully his behaviour will normalise again soon.

Links to Related Posts

• Reward Children Appropriately
• Tough Discipline or Corporal Punishment Forms Strength of Character
• No Smacking Discipline
• Mathaletics
• To My Eldest Son …
• Teach English So Kids Can Argue
• Private School Perth

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