  Yesterday Aidan yelled at his teachers and got into trouble, then he wouldn't apologize so he had to sit by himself for a while. In context, I understand that this was bound to happen because he's been pretty reactive lately. His brain is all over the place and he's very hyper. I've put off dealing with it directly because I thought whatever progress I might make will be completely undone by Christmas. This was a mistake, I should have nipped it in the bud. When we get home from picking Aidan up at school, I often let the kids watch Dora the Explorer. Not always, but often. So yesterday when we got home I gave Ellie a bagel and sat her in front of Dora (admittedly with the volume up a bit) and took Aidan into his bedroom for a talk. I sat him in his chair and explained that he couldn't watch Dora today because he didn't behave at school. Before I could even get the words out, he burst into tears! He was sobbing giant sorrowful cries, promising to be nice the teachers and never yell at them again.
I hugged him and rocked him and he calmed down. But then he thought it was all past us and wanted to go watch Dora. I tried again to explain that today he could not watch Dora, but tomorrow, if he behaved at school, he could. Again giant sobs and sorrow. I felt awful. He was genuinely sorry and he couldn't figure out why being so sorry wasn't making things better. By this time I was really questioning myself and I called John at work (I'd already briefed him on the phone as I drove home) to see if he thought I was bordering unfair.
He backed me up, said I was doing the perfect thing and shouldn't stop. So for the entirety of Dora (10 or 15 minutes after our talk was over) Aidan had to play in his room without watching Dora. The episode seems to have curbed his craze a little in general. I can't wait until we get the responsibilities chart (for Christmas). That's the style of rewards and loss of priveledges that inspired my punishment yesterday and Aidan responded to it very well. I've been planning chores and duties like feeding the cat and cleaning his room, but I'd overlooked the priveledges until yesterday. John said we should organize his toys on the shelves in his room (there are five shelves) according to the chart's levels so he gets the specialest ones when he behaves best.
I thought that was a great idea. Currently they're organized, by default, according to how much parental involvement they require. His favorite games like play doh and the toughest puzzles end up highest, but we shouldn't really do it that way. That encourages everyone to dumb down his play. 
