I had an assignment from Riley's teacher to use a million words or less and tell her about my child. The instructions stated that "each child is special and unique in their own way. No one knows this better than a parent." The point was to help the teacher know anything and everything that would help her to know and understand the student better. I could probably write a book about Riley. He's come through so much, is such a good kid, but still makes me crazy sometimes with his reverting negative behaviors.
Every year I struggle with how much information to give to the kids' teachers. I want to give them enough information to enable them to help my children to the best of their ability and also to give them insight into some of my childrens negative behaviors. At the same time, I don't want my childrens' past to be an excuse for their current behavior or for people to feel so sorry for them that they don't hold them responsible for their current actions.
Since I had to write this for Riley's teacher anyway, I thought I'd post it here too:
Riley is a very loving young man who likes school and thoroughly enjoys sports. He’s currently playing football on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. During the summer, he played baseball, loved riding his bike and swimming with his friends. Riley enjoys math and science and thinks it's fun to learn new facts. He generally does well in all his school subjects when he stays focused. He does tend to chat with others and can be very easily distracted.
Riley is very social and energetic. He really wants people to like him, which can be both positive and negative. He wants to please but can also be very susceptible to peer-pressure. With positive reinforcement and support, he will attempt almost anything but he is also very easily discouraged by negative comments. He sometimes struggles with authority and will argue his point of view, even when it gets him in trouble.
We have a large family and even though we try to give each child attention, sometimes it’s difficult to squeeze in everything. Riley’s siblings are: Brittney (14yrs, 9th grade), Taylor (10yrs, 4th grade), Zeke (9yrs 4th grade), Anthony (7yrs, 2nd grade)and Sophia (2 ½ yrs). Two are biological children and four were adopted.
It's also important to understand that Riley was adopted through the foster care system when he was 5 years old. There was significant abuse and neglect and various living situations before he was placed in foster care. He has quite a few memories of his life before living with us and most are not positive. He also felt responsible for his younger siblings at a very young age because of a lack of responsibility from his biological parents. Sometimes he will talk publicly about being adopted or his life in the past, but we usually leave that up to him and he doesn’t choose to talk about it very often anymore.
All in all, he's a good kid who takes a bit more patience, love and structure than might be typical for a kid his age. Thanks in advance for a great school year!
If you have specific questions or concerns, I would love to visit with you in person or via email anytime. :)
Tricia Wilkins
No comments:
Post a Comment