Who Says "Stop, Drop, and Roll" Only Applies To Fire?

Isa's been having some issues at school. A few weeks back, she recieved a yellow card in a class for talking. Then, about a week later, I got a call from her other teacher saying that she was disruptive and talking and being kind of rude.

Upon talking to Isa afterwards, some things came up.

1. She doesn't seem to be challenged. Her homework is simple to her. The assignments and worksheets being done are things that she has been doing for years.

2. She is being bullied. There is a boy in her class that she says is mean to her and her friends. This little boy calls them stupid and other things. And he acts like he is going to hit them. She said it makes her mad. I asked what they do about it, if they argue with him, hit him, or what? She said they tell the teacher, but he only gets time taken off of recess.

So, since I can't do much to teach this other kid how to behave, I had to figure out a way to teach my daughter to not be quite so bothered by him so that she can better focus at school. I asked her what we should do. I'm not sure what she was thinking my question was, but she replied, "Stop, drop and roll?"

Uh. Sure. I ran with it. So, we set out a plan of "Stop, drop and roll" to help her deal with this kid.

First, STOP. This means stop the contact with him as much as possible. Stop the conversation. Walk away. Ignore him. Whatever it takes.

Next, DROP. Drop the issue. Drop the anger and emotions that stem from him being mean. We talked about how she is smart and beautiful and a good person, so whatever mean things that are said are not valid, and they don't matter.

And ROLL. Roll onto the next thing. If he's mean at recess, then class begins, go into class with a new mindset and ready to learn. If he's mean during reading time, then you go to do worksheets, focus on the worksheet and not what he did during reading time.

Now, my five year old can recite these to you at any point (assuming she won't be shy about it), and I can only hope that she implements the actions as well at school as she does at home. When she starts to get tempermental here at the house, we simply remind her to "stop, drop, and roll" and she is able to do so with a smile on her face. Her beautiful face.