I signed Scout up for gymnastics. His first week was impressive (considering he is still 2, and it is a 3-4 year old class), and the teacher said he was definitely ready to sign up. Great — so we paid the money. After a week of bragging about how good he was, Micah came to see him in action during his second class. There were many factors — the other kid was goofing off, different instructor, Scout is proving to be the class clown — but it was on the disastrous side. Scout was more interested in making everyone laugh, than doing what he was told. I could just feel every other parent getting more and more mad, because “that kid” was taking away from their kid. I guess not being three was rearing it’s head. (Let’s be honest — it isn’t his age — he was just being naughty.)
Following gymnastics, I was on a mission. First off, I was not about to pay money for a kid to go and just be stinky for an hour. Second, I know that Scout is completely capable of being good. Third, I don’t want him to be a follower of the other goof-offs, and was determined to curb that ASAP! So the plan was to spend an entire week teaching him how to “follow directions”.
Although we covered the subject countless times in the day-to-day’s of the week, the big lesson came during family night. It was entirely geared around following directions, and I used an object lesson to get the point across. I had Micah tell me step by step directions on how to make a PB & J. I followed exactly what he said for about half of the time, but then I became stinky — and started goofing off. I put the peanut butter on the cutting board, made a mess, etc. Scout died laughing, but then answered all of the questions right. (Which way is better — following directions or not? / What if someone else did this — would it be okay to do? ETC.) I was thrilled with how family night went, and could see that Scout was really understanding the concept.
Until…..the rest of the week when I would ask him to follow directions, he would say, “But you didn’t….you put peanut butter all over the cutting board.” After a dozen times of him telling me that, I started to worry that my plan may backfire. Hesitantly, I trucked along….I guess time would tell.
Right before he left me to go with his coach, I had one last talk with him. For the first time during the week, Scout didn’t respond with anything having to do with peanut butter or a cutting board.
I watched him like a hawk. I even told the coach to feel free to reprimand him as harshly as was needed. As I watched, I softened. He was perfect. He followed directions, and ended up being a leader in the class. The coaches used him as an example quite a few times. When all of the kids came out, both coaches told me that there was a huge improvement, and that Scout was “really good at following directions”. I was so proud. But the proudest moment came when Scout ran his fastest to me after class and said, “Mommy….Mommy….I followed my directions!”
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