The boys got to pick taters with Granny
We went trick-or-treating. We got a last minute phone call Halloween night asking if Jack could trick-or-treat with a friend, so I said yes. We discovered that we missed Jack terribly and it turns out he missed us, so next year we told him he is trick-or-treating with us no matter what. He didn't seem upset about this.
There were a few days there when I wasn't feeling too hot so we didn't get out all that often. I think the boys got a bit sick of staying inside because Luke, my child that dislikes going walk, asked if we could please go on a walk at the bog. I had to say yes, and I think we all felt better for it.
Then, minus going to story time at the library, we didn't do much for awhile because I have felt quite overwhelmed and tired. Jack has always been energetic and we have always known that it would be an issue later. It turns out that later is perhaps now. His teacher lets us know how Jack is doing on a weekly basis. He never sits in his seat. He just walks around the room. He talks out of turn all the time. As he teacher said- he has so much to share but he needs to learn when to share it. He stuffed a girl's shoes full of tissue paper and when asked why he said- I don't know. He misses silly problems on his school work because he just isn't paying attention. He sometimes just forgets to do whole problems because he doesn't realize they are there. At home with the addition of homework to his daily schedule things have been quite difficult for us. He gets home around 3:30pm and usually has three things he has to get done. 1. On Monday they get 6 spelling words for a spelling test on Friday, so we practice everyday. 2. A math worksheet 3. He has to read 20 minutes a day. Since we have him in chess he does have a few pages of chess to do a week but this is not every day. This is all and none of it is too difficult for him. It takes him about 2 minutes to do a math worksheet front and back once he gets to it. His spelling words he usually knows by Tuesday but we still go over them to make sure. The reading is the hardest part because he has to sit still to read and he would rather jump around, fidget, make random noises in the middle of reading, or skip over words as he reads. So what should take maybe 45 minutes at the absolute most takes 4 or 5 hours and a lot of screaming and crying by both him and me. It was getting ridiculous. After one particularly hard evening and an afternoon talk with this teacher about how he was getting to be a bit much in class we decided to take him to the doctor. I just want some help, some tips, some advice, and guidance because I have no idea what to do and it isn't fun for him either. We, his parents and teacher, were given a questionnaire to fill out. It was absolutely amazing how that whole form seemed to be about him. You rate the questions and they were like: 1. Runs about or climbs when remaining seated is expected 2. Interrupts in on other's conversations or activities 3. Dislikes or does not want to start tasks that require ongoing mental effort 4. Does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
Apparently, there is a co-morbidity that goes along with it and for Jack it seems like anxiety is his. We haven't gone back to the doctor yet, but I am sure this is just the beginning. We don't want him on medicine, at least not right away. We would like to try other methods before we resort to medicine. We have started a new behavior chart that goes hand in hand with his daily behavior chart at school. It worked quite well
last week so hopefully it continues. Also, we have decided to try to take as much sugar out of his diet as possible and add more protein. So, it has been tough here lately, but we are trying to work it out.
Also, we have made more of an effort to get outside anytime the weather permits. So today we went to the park.
