The sensitive one

We had conferences on Friday. All went glowingly well. Going into Aidan's, I was already up to speed because we had just had his IEP the week prior, and a lot came up in there.

Aidan is a good student. He's one of those kids who follows the classroom rules. If the teacher gives the strategies for being a Strong Reader, he follows all of them. He does every step, without skipping one. And because of this, he's moved up 2 reading levels in less than a month. We're so proud of him.

Aidan is a shy kid. Not so much with adults....he can sit down and talk an adult's ear off (hello, Uncle Ryan!). But it takes him a long time to build up a friendship that he's comfortable with. Or at least, that's what we see on the outside. His teacher says that he interacts just fine in the classroom, which is wonderful to hear. However, one of his very best friends is a girl. And there are some cruel boys in his class who have taken to taunting him for this, calling them boyfriend and girlfriend. Said boy has also critiqued Aidan's kicking and running skills when it comes to recess kickball. I'd like to have a word with the kid's mom, but that's not here nor there. Thankfully, Aid's teacher called a meeting to try and put a stop to the behavior by talking about how you treat your classmates and how boys and girls can be friends and its ok.

After the first meeting, Aidan and I were walking home and he was telling me about it. He was saying how 'J' has not been well behaved since the first day of school and he's just not very nice. I said something to the effect of, "Well, that's ok. You're not going to be friends with everyone. That's just part of life." And he chewed on it and said something like, "Well Mommy, he is still my friend, he's just a boy who does not make good choices most of the time."

Wow. He's so sweet...always willing to give someone another chance and the benefit of the doubt. I hope it doesn't bite him in the butt as he goes through life. I hope that he manages to stay a non-cynical person with a positive outlook.

Too bad he's so hard on himself. We need to work on that...