My son is 6 y/o and continues to misbehave, in spite of any punishment that we implement. In particular, he struggles with respecting other's personal space (hitting, pushing, shoving, etc.) and not respecting other's feelings (saying mean and hurtful things). What concerns me most is that we talk about these particular things on a daily basis but it seems to be in vain. We talk about the "3 Big Rules": don't invade anyone's personal space, think about other's feelings, and live with integrity (and he knows that integrity means doing the right thing when no one is looking). Inevitably, when mom and dad are not looking, he acts up and violates one of the rules. Once or twice a week, he goes to an all-day summer camp. We pick him up and the counselors say that he misbehaved and was in time-out. A few times a week, he goes to a 1-hour Child Watch play area at the local fitness center while my wife and I exercise. Almost every time we pick him up, he gets called out for one of the 3 Big Rules. Recently, he decided to throw a rock through our neighbor's window. When confronted about it, not only did he lie but he blamed it on his best friend. He was pretty transparent so we got his to confess rather quickly. However, when we talked about it to try and get at why he did it or what he was feeling, he just says, "I don't know."
1st grade is approaching and I'm getting worried that his behavior will not be tolerated like it was in Kindergarten. He is a very bright boy who clearly knows right from wrong but I don't know why he continues to chose to do the wrong thing every chance he gets.