Letting Children be Children

I am currently on placement in a reception class (age 4 - 5) in a rather large school. It is only day 2 of my one week placement but already a child has attached themselves to me.

Said child is often seen as a trouble maker, a bit too loud and very easily distracted. Basically, he is being a kid and getting told off for acting his age.

Example:

Yesterday I was helping him with a maths subtraction task. The children were given a simple sum such as
7 - 5 =
and were asked to use the method of drawing seven circles, crossing out five of them and counting the circles that were left to get the answer.

This particular sum hit a chord with the child as he explained to me that he was 5 and his brother was seven, and therefore this sum was like saying "my brother, takeaway me, equals..."
I had no problem with listening to this story and letting him explain it to me as it helped the sum make sense in his head, but the teacher who was hovering over the group who were doing this task told the boy off for not concentrating; when I'd argue he was concentrating.

For the next sum the boy decided he was bored of circles and was going to draw squares and triangles instead. Again, I have no problem with this as it helps him stay on task and feel more engaged; plus it took him no extra time to draw his triangles or squares. However, (you can see where this is going) the teacher told him that she was disappointed that he was getting distracted again and that she'd asked him to draw circles not triangles or squares.

Of course, class teachers word out rules mine and it would be unprofessional of me to undermine her, so I told the boy he could tell me all about his brother later and he suggested we practice more maths with triangles later on when he didn't have to use "boring circles".

Today I spent the majority of the afternoon with the child playing in the sand pit and practicing subtraction. He told me all about his brothers and that is the sum was 7 - 2 = it was like taking his little brother away from his big brother. I was fascinated to hear how his mind worked and his vocabulary when playing with the sand was very advanced for his age. What I discovered was a very intelligent child who's creative side was being crushed and his thoughts, quires and reasoning going unheard. The fact that I gave him the time of day to listen to him and the flexibility to draw triangles instead of circles is probably why he became my little shadow.