how do you do it each day?

Each day moves forward without prompting.

We start when the rest of the kids leave the house.

1.  8am – four kids off to school.
2. 8:30 breakfast and clean up
3. 9:00 play time
4. 9:30 exercise period
5. 10:00 study math
6. 10:30 break
7. 11:00 spelling lessons
8. 11:30 – 1 lunch
9. 1pm grammar and reading.
10. 1:30pm. done for the day

For exercise we use games on the Wii. When it gets warmer, we will go outside. We also have an exercise bike.
Three times a week, we try to have an outing of some kind.  Go to the store, a cafe, bank or whatever.

Our day varies depending on his temperament and how he is responding.  Because of the severity of the ADHD, the above schedule is very flexible.  Some days we might not get started until 11am and might get done at 1.  We work when he is able to focus and function.

I try to combine some history stuff in the reading when it is available, or turn on the History Channel during his free time.  Last week we watched a show about the bottom of the ocean and how things survive.  So far this is working for him.  It is still our hope that he gets to go to public school.  We would modify his day to a level that is appropriate.  There are just some things, like social skills, that can’t be learned one on one.  A lot of the learning takes place via the computer and a number of educational websites.  This is especially true for multiplication tables and spelling lessons.

But how do you get through the day?  Will.  Each day is unique, celebrate the successes leave the failures for another time.  Even in the failures, one can find success.  We document as much as we can both positive and negative.   This is then shared with the medical and psych team.  Above all, we remember that he isn’t this way because he necessarily wants to be this way.  He is this way because of what his birth mother did.

Last week, David, in a moment of apparent clarity asked me why we kept him, and adopted him into our family.

My answer was, “you complete our family, and we loved you.  we still love you, we may not always like what you do, but we still love you.”