Update....
My DS' last day of PS was ugly and horrible. Taking him out of school was the best decision I ever made. DS was made line leader to go to lunch. A girl in his class got in front and DS told her to go to the back of the line. She refused. Since the girl was 4 yrs older are much bigger than he was, he chose his course of action. He stepped on her foot. DS is very serious when given responsibility. The girl went running to the teacher who promptly "demoted" my son. He completely lost it. In his mind he was fulfilling the role he'd been given.
He got hysterical in the hallway and sat on the floor refusing to move. The principal told me that he was howling so loud that every teacher in the school came running. One of the teachers carried him to the office at which point he exploded. He jumped up on the chair and screaming at the top of his lungs, started ripping everything off the bulletin boards. Needless to say they called me.
When I got to the school he was sobbing, uncontrollable. This is completely out of character for my DS, he's never had much of a temper and he's NEVER completely lost control before. I scooped him up and took him home. It all came pouring out at home. He felt that he couldn't do anything right. I asked him why he didn't ask for help and he replied that he was supposed to know everything and shouldn't need help. For hours the tears came, on and on, he beat himself up for "ruining everything". Damn perfectionism!
The next day, he went to the preschool with me. He was very subdued and I just kind of let him hang. He helped in the 4 yo class with an art project and spent alot of time following me around. He even asked if he could have a cot to nap with the others. He slept for almost 3 hours. I went to the school in the afternoon to disenroll him and spent the entire day convinced that I had ruined my son.
We talked again that evening and my son was at a loss to explain what had happened. We agreed to leave it behind and start fresh. The next morning, I gave him some simple assignments and let him spend the rest of the day selecting books and just kind of nosing around. The school has a huge library of books as it was an elementary school at one time. We've continued this pattern for the last week and I'm happy to say that my "wimpy kid" is still in there.
When I h/s him for K, he used to sing while doing his math. It drove me crazy! I couldn't figure out how he could concentrate on his work while belting out the oldies. Yesterday, while doing his math, he started to sing and I, big dork that I am, started to cry. He hasn't sung for a long time. I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me that this was a sign of unhappiness. I just assumed that he'd outgrown it or whatever. One of the preschool teachers walked in and there I stood, tears running down my face and a big goofy smile. God, these kids are sooo hard! I can't tell you how scared I was that 3 weeks of school had screwed him up forever!
On a side note, the preschool is doing fine and I have a 3yo GT kid. Talks like a 10 yo!
