Only eleven days ago I commented that Samuel was not yet trying to escape our yard, but it has happened, he is trying to wander off! Not only that, while we were at the park Wednesday he ran away. He surprised us by running to a place that he had never gone before. After almost six years of going to the same park, there have been one or two places that he tends to wander towards, but this time he went in a completely different direction. He has also become capable of running very fast. We have plans of attending the park regularly this summer but now we are going to have to re-strategize a bit so that we can be there safely. Due to complications that occurred when I delivered Samuel I am not able to run and he is now capable of running fast enough that he gives our in-home helpers a challenge.
Taking time off from going to the park to re-strategize wouldn't bother me, but this is one of the only regular chances that his brothers have to see their friends. Another way of looking at it is that we should keep going and immediately deal with this problem. Samuel was very aware that he had done something wrong on Wednesday. We tried not to talk about it with him very much but he was still making comments like "I made you upset." This morning he made the comment "While I am at school I am going to run outside." I called his teacher and gave them a warning about this. I was glad to see that he did not attempt to run away as I walked him into school.
At home we have a fenced-in yard. As the weather warms up and my husband starts working in the garage, however, the boys like to join him and this area of our house is not fenced in. In the last couple days he has tried to wander from the places that he is allowed to be outside of the fence. Samuel's older brother and younger brother can be trusted to wander freely in our yard, and even go visit our neighbors, but this is not the case with Samuel. It will be difficult to enforce the different levels of "freedom" that they have. What will Samuel think of this?!
This is another time I'll be referring to my social stories book to see how it might be best to approach this. In the meantime we have placed a bolt on the gate of our fence. He might be able to remove it, but it would take him long enough that he couldn't easily escape. I am also looking into getting some extra help with him.
1 comment:
I cannot let the little one go outside on his own. He's good about minding the boundaries while I am there, wanders if I'm not paying attention. They were shocked at the field trip I only had to "yell" (HUGE field) "No, R" 3 times (road, trail, woods) and he stayed after he knew where the "fence" was - had a great time running. At school he bolts but I cannot make them understand.... blogged that one haven't I :)
The eldest has been taught since he was 3 since he walks out doors. I just showed him where he could play and the moment he abused it.. he was in the house. Didn't take long to realize Mommy was serious. We have to review boundaries every summer... they expand every year... but I truly cannot complain about him.
S.
Post a Comment