Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Report Cards

Yesterday we got the boys report cards. Which is always interesting :)

Tim and Sam did very well. We rarely have concerns about their academics as they always do very well. It is more about the social skills that we look for the boys to work on. For Tim it is talking in class and respecting the rights and opinions of others (have we ever mentioned that Tim always needs to be right? :) ) But we saw that he had improved in some areas, so he was proud of that and knows what he needs to work on.

For Sam, it is about keeping himself from getting distracted. He does his work fabulously and he apparently even helps other kids with concepts in Math and Reading (instead of giving them the answer) but is easily distracted and silly at times. All in all, good reports for both.

Max on the other hand is our challenge. "Academically" he is just fine, he knows his numbers and letters and seems to be writing ok, but it is totally the social skills. He doesn't focus well on what he is working on and he just doesn't pay attention when he needs to be. I'm not surprised, these are things that we work on at home (this child takes forever to eat meals), but I'm not sure how to 'teach' him attentiveness and focus. SO I sent a note to the teacher for some suggestions.

I do think that karate will help as focus and paying attention are things that he works on there. We did talk about what it means to pay attention, look at the person, listen to what they are saying, and keep your body parts still :)

At some point I wonder when is this normal and when do you consider something like ADD or ADHD. I hate to go that route and don't think that we are at that point, but I do wonder about it.

Anyway, back to work!

1 comment:

JSmith5780 said...

You worry about ADHD when it becomes so disruptive that nothing gets done.

For home, minimize distractions, set time limits, warn when time is almost up. If need be, use a timer that HE can watch. It will help make him accountable. Let him know he has 15 minutes to eat dinner. When the timer is up, dinner gets taken away. The intent is not to starve him (or speed eat), but for him to realize he has to set a pace, and keep a pace. Also to realize there are consequences.

As you can see with Austin, meds was the LAST route we tried. Yes we have been so lucky to find a med that works, but it took 3 tries. And ever med has it's side effects.

Any questions, just ask.