I am trying to help my son become more organized but it’s like the blind leading the blind. I’m sure he can see that someone whose desk looks like mine does shouldn’t be handing out tips on organization.
My heart goes out to him because he has many of the same struggles I had as a kid: He forgets his homework, he does his homework but then he can’t find it, he doesn’t always know what the assignment is.
So he and I are going to spend some time tonight putting his papers in their various subject areas in his looseleaf notebook. It took me about a week to convince him that this is a better system than keeping his papers in folders .
The other problem he has in school is harder to fix: he simply isn’t engaged when he isn’t interested and so he spaces out in math and doodles in reading/writing workshop. This is understandably frustrating for the teachers and doesn’t help him much either.
Someone told me recently that kids with attention problems like R. have real trouble engaging their brains when they’re bored. When kids with ADHD are given brain scans as they do a task they find boring, their neurons simply don’t fire. This would explain a lot.
The solution has been for me to hound him all day from morning until night and for me to keep in constant touch with his teachers so I know if he’s falling behind
I got some words of wisdom from someone who told me that you can’t let these kids fail and you have to get on their team, so I’ve really been trying to get on his team and be patient. I’m not always successful.
Meanwhile, R. is showing signs of some independence. Today, he took out a timer to time his reading and piano practice. OK, maybe this is actually a sign that he doesn’t want to read or practice any longer than he has to but hey – I’m happy to see him being proactive.
I’ll go on helping him to develop skills that I lack. At least, I’m well aware that it won’t happen overnight. It’s a lifetime process and we’re both learning.
