Big Brother Rex

I had the big meeting with the principal today and we have a plan.  I knew it was going to be good when one of the first things that the principal said was "well everyone needs to be on the same page that Riley is treated the same as all our children". I sighed a big sigh of relief and knew it would all work out. I don't know if you all know this about me but I worry a lot and especially when it comes to Riley and school.


Riley's classroom teacher, the principal and I  brainstormed ways to keep Riley safe and help make him successful. I came with a list of ideas that I have collected from all of you and a template for a behavior/sticker reward chart.    We have a variety of things that we think will make it easier for Riley to make better choices.    We will be limiting the space on the playground he is allowed to go to just the bark area.  The bark area is where he typically stays anyway because it has the swings, slide and the tires he loves to hide in when its time to line up.  There is plenty of space to run off some energy and have a ton of fun with his friends with out the wide open space and the fence that leads to the dogs that get him in trouble.  We did agree that day was a freak accident and not a normal pattern of behavior so that was good. 

We are going to try a system where Riley has a special bracelet he gets to wear to recess, music and PE.  Really anywhere that he won't be with his normal classroom teacher.  If he isn't a good listener when it is time to line up or doesn't stay with the group in class he will have to hand over his bracelet to the teacher on duty.  I think he will hate to give it up so that will be motivating for him to keep it.  If he returns to class with his bracelet he will get to put a sticker on his chart to bring home to me at the end of the day.  I'm not positive that the sticker will be meaningful to him but it will allow the teacher and I to see patterns.  Does he consistently have rough days on certain days of the week or with certain combinations of activities?  If he has PE is he then too tired to listen at recess?  Who knows what we will learn but the geek in me wants to graph it.  We will be monitoring the three recesses and PE and Music class. 

Rex is also going to play a role in this grand plan.  He is going to leave his lunch 5 minutes early to join Riley on the playground at noon recess.  He will then help Riley line up and walk him to class and then he will go to his own recess.  Rex will also be able to take Riley's bracelet if he doesn't line up nicely.  We hope Rex will only have to do this for a few weeks while Riley gets this all figured out.  When Rex got home from football practice today Riley and I were busy making his new bracelet.  When he asked Riley was he was doing and I told him we were making a really awesome bracelet and joined right in and made one too. Thankfully Rex picked up what we were doing and started telling Riley how great his bracelet was and how he loved the colors.  This bracelet has to be a BIG deal to Riley.   Rex is going to wear his bracelet to school tomorrow so Riley knows how awesome his bracelet is.  Rex informed me that he doesn't care if he friends make fun of him.  I love this boy!  I truly don't think he friends will make fun of him.  Once he tells them its to help Riley I'm guessing they will all want a bracelet made of a string of Dollar Store beads.  Its all the rage!!!

There are a few other things that will be better communicated to all the teachers that work with Riley so they have some tools to pull out of their box if he gives them grief.  We also agreed that Justin and I need to be notified right away if there is a big issue.  Waiting several days  A friend of mine gave me a Social Story book for recces success that I'm going to add Riley's picture to and made a couple of changes to make it specific to Riley's school and we'll start reading that too. 

 Over all I think we have a good start.  It feels good to have a plan. For making it through that long post I have a Riley funny for you.

 As we were leaving today after school Riley is saying good bye to all his friends.  He waves and says good bye to Kaityln and then says Bye Recess to the other little girl with Kaityln.  When I said Riley thats Kaityln's friend he yells Bye Recess.  The only thing I can figure is he doesn't know her name but sees her at recess with Kaityln and so has named her Recess.  Or she didn't understand him when he constantly asks her name so he made up his own...



Riley and Rex October 2012