The latest from the parenting files:

Right before lunch, I got a call from the vice principal at school--Mr. A had been sent to the office TWICE today.

Reason for the first trip: on the playground at morning recess, he and four other boys were caught preparing to go dumpster diving to collect materials to build a robot. Yes, I know this is disgusting and dangerous but it is so like my son, whose motto should be "I. Must. Build. Or. I. Will. Die." This is what I get for encouraging his creativity and allowing him to drag potential building materials home on "big trash" day in our neighborhood. Of course, if he flunks out of elementary school, the dumpster diving skills may come in real handy.

He and the other boys were sent to the office by the recess monitor and given lunch detention. Then before he even serves his lunch detention, he gets sent to the office by his teacher for CLIMBING THE WALLS in the boys' bathroom. No explanation why, not that there is any reasonable explanation for climbing the walls in the bathroom, unless he was planning on diving into the toilet. Really, if you're a child who considers dumpster diving, how much grosser is toilet diving?

When the vice principal told me about the evil plans to build a robot, my first impulse was to laud the kids' teamwork and creativity, but I stopped myself from laughing and assumed the proper "concerned parent" voice. Secretly I'm thinking letting them see what's in a dumpster would better deter further dumpster adventures than detention. But hey, I'm sure that's not allowed.

After the bathroom incident, the vice principal puts my son on the phone to talk to me. My sage advice: when you are on the playground, use the jungle gym EQUIPMENT for exercise and climbing and get that out of your system, and save robot building for home where we have lots of (clean) materials to work with.

He spent all afternoon in detention, and then we got a call from his teacher suggesting we all get together to explore the idea that maybe the Boy Genius/Homework Dropout has ADD. Sigh.

I considered this possibility last year and researched it fairly extensively. While I felt he had some of the symptoms some of the time, the only problem we had all of the time was his complete lack of organizational skills. Maybe his ADD is ADD and can't stay on task! Ha, ha, ha. The disorder within the disorder.

Right now it is very hard to keep him focused, but next quarter he may come home and do everything on his own. That's been the pattern the last year or so--a few months "on" and a few months "off."  Anyway, I welcome the opportunity to get a professional and objective opinion on his behavior and have some testing done, though I wonder who is available and qualified to do it here in Belgium where I think labeling kids ADD or ADHD isn’t common. I also wonder how his school, which is  small, will be able to accommodate his needs.  I wouldn't want to resort to medication if changes in his learning environment would help him succeed.

As my mom would say, one day at a time. We'll see where this journey takes us.

September 26, 2006