Kids should come with an instruction manual!

*****Caution: Mommy rant ahead!*****

Picked up Ian from school today, and after that, all hell broke loose. Although, I guess I should backtrack so that I don't seem like a total moron or shrew.

Ian has always been a good student. Kindergarten, he did awesome. He was able to test into the first grade math program halfway through the semester, he was (fairly) well behaved, he was polite, he did his homework happily, and just in general, he was a happy kid. Same for this year, up until mid to the end of October.

All of a sudden he went from having green days with smiley faces sent home on his homework list to yellow or orange days with frowny faces, and notes that he wouldn't listen, or he (accidentally, according to him) bonked a kid with his water bottle. He stopped getting all his work done in class and was having to bring it home to finish along with his homework. And, man o' man, was it a fight to get him to do any of it!! I had to stand right next to him in order to get him to do any of his work, instead of sitting him at the island and cleaning the kitchen while he worked and, once in awhile, asked for help. Homework time and chore time became a time for yelling (from both of us) and crying (mainly him) and a whole lot of chasing him back to what he should be doing. He started being meaner to his sister, although not so much anymore, because she dishes out whatever she receives! I was at a loss.

Part (most) of me thought that it was because I had become so stressed out that he wasn't getting enough positives in his day and was reacting accordingly, so over winter break, I made an extra effort to make sure that we did fun things together; reading, drawing, play doh, cooking, even just talking. He was a happier kid, and I was a happier mommy.

Then, it was back to school on the 3rd of January. Short week, only 3 days, but he did awesome, finishing all his school work at school, green smiley faces all week, and minimal arguing about homework! First day this week was yellow, but he admitted that he didn't listen as well as he should have and then he said sorry. An unsolicited apology! And the next two days? Green smiley faces, finished work, and only arguing between him and his sister. I can deal with that a little, I know that it'll happen at times.

Then on Thursday, he actually had to be sent out of the classroom to do his work, and so that he would quit bothering the other kids. Today, he hit orange, with a phone call home from the PE teacher, and a request for a conference from his classroom teacher. He refused to listen, tripped another student, threw a hissy fit when he got into trouble, had to sit out from PE twice, and in general was an angry, uncooperative child all day. What the hell?? We were having good times at home still, we made cookies together last night, with him doing all the fun stuff, he did his homework by himself with NO arguing, we were laughing all week. I don't know what went wrong.

So now I get to look forward to a conference with two of his teachers, and all I can say is, I know he's having problems, but I don't know why. Someone forgot to give me the instruction manual for his model! (At least I still have a sense of humor. That might not be the case next week!)

Has anyone else had problems like this? Did you get them resolved? HOW????