All night long (all night)

(Forgive the Lionel Richie inspired title. It's been stuck in my head all day, lol.)

My Attention Seeker has been keeping me on my toes since school started. I went to Mrs. S to get some of his story, since she taught him in both pre-K and K. She told me that she had the early intervention counselor observe him in K. The counselor made some recommendations for both home and school, so Mrs. S. gave me a copy of that list. Basic stuff... give him five minute warnings before transitions, praise him for the positive rather than call attention to the negative. Mrs. S. also used a behavior chart for him based on his most frequent inappropriate behaviors (calling out, tantrums, hitting, etc), but she said it wasn't very successful. I might suggest it when I meet with his mom.

I found out a little about his family situation, too. He's the youngest of three kids. The oldest son is in college, the middle son is in high school. My unprofessional opinion? He was an "oops baby." That's not necessarily a bad thing... unless the mother treats the youngest like a baby much longer than she should. He still talks in a babyish voice - a bit louder than the other kids, kind of whiny, still says his r's as w's ("weeding" instead of "reading"). I'd chalk the last one up to a possible speech problem, but then I heard how his mom talks to him. She uses a very exaggerated tone of voice with him, almost like she's speaking to a three year old.

And the clincher? This morning, Attention Seeker came into my room and made a beeline for me.

"Miss M, my mom said she was so, so proud of me!"

"Good!" I said. "What did you do?"

"Last night I slept by myself for the first time. I slept by myself ALL NIGHT. My mom was so, so, SO proud of me!" He grinned.

I looked up, a bit distracted by the morning rush of kids unpacking and running to the coatroom. "Cool... wait, where do you normally sleep?"

"With my mom," he answered, matter of factly. "But last night I slept by myself the whole night!"

So, there you have it. Six years old and still sleeping in his mom's bed. Let's just hope last night was the beginning of a new trend for him and mom.