well i figured out why Mite is sad. he's being ostracized in his class. our next door neighbor has a kid the same age who is a very bright, in-you-face kid. he and Mite have been great buddies, but they are prone to fighting every couple of weeks. the fights are typical kids fights that i don't get all ruffled about, but apparently the neighbor kid does.

then there is another neighbor down the way with a girl the same age as Mite. about a month ago, she and her brother were throwing sticks at our house. we were sitting inside (Mite was at camp) and suddenly heard this loud thumping on the house. i went outside to check and it was this girl, her 6 year old brother and the neighbor kid. i asked what was going on. they said they were seeing who could throw the stick the highest on the house. i told them it wasn't appropriate to throw sticks at people's houses and it wasn't appropriate to be in other people's yards without their knowledge. i sent the neighbor kid home and walked home with the other two to meet their parents and let them know what had happened.

it was all very calm and kind. i wasn't angry, but just wanted the kids to know what they were doing wasn't ok.

well about an hour after I came back home the girl's dad came back to our house and told me off saying i had no right to discipline his kids. he said his kids said i yelled at them and they didn't throw sticks. that was funny because they told him right in front of me that they had thrown sticks. he kept ranting and telling me off. it was horrid.

so now both the neighbor boy and this girl are in Mite's class and telling him that their parents hate him and me. they are telling the other kids (who all been in class together since the first grade gifted cluster) not to play with him because **I** am mean!!!!!!

for goodness sake....i don't know what to do. it is terrible. they are really doing a job of it. i watch the group at after school club and saw they were indeed ostracizing him. the poor chap, who to this point has NEVER had ANY social problems and is considered kind and polite by everyone, including kids from class last year, just stands there and asks people if he can play with them as they run by and they all say NO.

i feel so bad about all this. what can i do? I've told the school and the stuff, of course, isn't happening in the classroom; so, they all say it isn't happening.

sigh. nothing seems to be going right for Mite.


Willa Gayle