The best thing we've done for the Firecracker was to sign him up for Dinosaur Camp. This was a program he took part in last summer, run by the University of Washington's School of Nursing. It's for children who are aggressive and impulsive, and who aren't being medicated for ADHD. They teach the children -- and, perhaps more importantly, the parents -- techniques to calm down, focus, learn to read emotions, and interact well with other kids.
It was great. Pretty much perfect. Its only problem was that it ended. It's a grant-based program, and our time was up. We were lucky that the Firecracker got into the summer camp, and I got ten weeks of parenting lessons. In the fall and spring they run things slightly differently.
The parents' class read Carolyn Webster-Stratton's "The Incredible Years," a book that pretty much described us all perfectly. Even if you can't find a program like this near you, the book should be helpful. (There's a newer edition, but I couldn't find it on Amazon.)
If they did a year 'round school, we'd quadruple-mortgage the house and sell our plasma to send the Firecracker there.
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