looking for advice

[Guest guest]

Sorry for the cross-post, this might sound trivial but before it

turns into a problem, I am looking for advice. My daughter (7

years) in reg. 1st grade with full time para/aide, has started to

play with her pencils/pencil box. The aide has watched her for a week

now, and is noticing when it is happening, it turns out it starts to

happen when it is time for her math sheets, which of course is not

her strong subject matter. They have those desks with the cubby, so

she just slips her hands inside and opens and closes it, she starts

to switch the pencils, or has to get up and sharpen them, it doesn't

matter if the pencil is sharpened already or if it's just a different

color, at first I thought it was because of the designs on them, but

we now just give her the yellow ones. She will look around the

classroom to see if her aide is watching her, to get caught or not.

She is smart enough to come up with excuses that she " wasn't doing

anything " in her words. Is it a stall tactic, to get out of math, I

believe so? But she has to bring the sheet home if she doesn't finish

it anyway, and at home, I only let her choose 1 pencil, let her

sharpen it, and then no more switching. Should we take away the

pencil box, and only give her 1 pencil at a time, then work up to

giving her back the box. I know this might sound silly, but I want to

nip it in the bud, before it starts into an OCD

behavior....Thanks.....Jodi and