I don't have time to answer the learning challenge question at the moment - will come back later tonight and answer... but I did just want to reassure you quickly - you didn't pick the wrong kindergarten - he landed with a teacher who had a behavior system that was beyond complicated and would have driven many of us nuts! She also doesn't appear to have been terribly responsive to your concerns. Teacher choice is something that most of us have very little control of, and from all the friends I've had with kids in many different schools over the years, the one thing that's been consistent throughout is that there's at least one teacher at every school that everyone's child is bound to land in the classroom of for one year - that you'll just pull your hair out over or wish your child had never had. It doesn't mean you picked the wrong school or that your child's not going to have a great year next year - it's just that teachers are human, and not all teachers are great teachers. For the most part, we've had *way* more many wonderful teachers than not wonderful, and I'm hoping your ds will too!
Best wishes,
polarbear
ps - the other thing about behavior charts (aside from just the entire system itself)... is that I think it's possible for teachers to sort of pigeon-hole a student into a particular "slot" and be watching them for things to keep them there - does that make sense? IE, bias can slip in. I'm not saying that's happened to your ds, just that it's yet another reason I don't particularly like them - if a child has a teacher who is expecting them to be behavior-challenged and subconsciously is looking for behavior issues, therefore keeping them low on the color-system, it turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy in some instances, where a child feels like they can't win, and it can erode self-confidence. And did I mention I've just never seen an instance of that type of system actually producing better behavior? Even my kids who have no issues with behavior, didn't obsess about it, and didn't get moved down for behavior.. found that type of system just beyond frustrating.
