Throughout my son's elementary-school years, there was a predictable pattern: Things would go well early in the school year, perk along nicely through about mid-November, and then tilt downward, with particular trouble in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. After one particularly awful holiday spell, I was able to identify the culprit: the school holiday pageant. All routine seemed to stop to make way for rehearsals, eventually involving long days crammed in the gym while everybody else practiced, too. My guy couldn't take the disruption. I pulled him out of the show that year, and let all future teachers know that if there were behavior problems around the holidays, they shouldn't blame it on him. If your child's school decorum takes a nosedive this time of year, check into the pageant situation, and follow the tips in "Before You Let Your Child Perform in a Holiday Pageant" to make sure the show doesn't take over.
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Image by Terri Mauro