I have a 5 year old ds, who will be 6 soon. Up until recently, he has been a relatively easy and well behaved child, and always very smart. Aside from the usual challenges, this is the first year where I am starting to struggle with managing his behavior. He was always well behaved in school, but this year has acted out in class, first being silly when he should be listening (not exactly unheard of!) but I just found out that he has been hitting on occaision also, not hard enough to hurt the other child, but still unacceptable. Part of the problem is that his teacher has not handled the situation well from the start, but I am concerned about this as he has never had these kinds of issues before. He knows when he has behaved badly and feels remorse, but at the same time, he tells me "I just want to do whatever I want" when I ask why he behaves the wrong way. He has also mentioned another child bothering him - but he knows he should not hit. We have tried a reward system and punishing him at home for things at school too, but I am not seeing lasting results with either system. I am wondering if this is a phase...or if this is a new trend for him that could get worse? Or is this a tough age because they have not really learned impulse control yet?
At the same time, it's been a challenging year on the homefront, between getting pg, having a preemie, and buying/selling houses on top of it. I'm just not sure how to handle it anymore, trying to be patient with ds but at the same time, I don't want to let bad behavior slide. He's very sweet with the baby and not showing jealousy signs but maybe it's coming out in other ways?
I am wondering if this is a tough age for others too? I'm not sure what to think or how to handle him...