I'm soo familiar with this problem.And where is there time for a little joy in this child's life?

Is it possible to give your son a small dose of Focalin - non XR - to get him through the evening routine?

Has his teacher adjusted his homework? You can try documenting how much time he spends. Ask the teacher how long he should spend on homework. Then after he's worked on it for his allotted time, sign off & let him decompress.

If that doesn't work, and there are a couple of spots where it can break down. the teacher may not cooperate, your son might catch on to the possibility that he could not try at all.

Try to get someone else to supervise your son's homework. Preferably someone at school, like a special ed teacher or his classroom teacher. If you get nowhere with the school, try an older neighbor kid. Sometimes a child will bend over backwards to cooperate with an attractive teen while they would completely blow off Mom.

I'm also wondering if you can ease off on your schedule a bit. Maybe he can stay up till 8pm? Maybe you could use the later bedtime as an incentive to make an honest effort on his homework. Maybe at his age, he doesn't require a bath every night. Maybe twice a week would suffice. I know my kids used to eat up the whole evening on the just the bath project alone.

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You just wrote about my life. My son is 7 (2nd grade) and has inattentive ADD and hes on focalin XR (10mg). What we have done is basically put my son and his routine 1st. First talk to his doctor about maybe getting an additional dosage for homework time. So far we haven't needed this, but homework just started for my son. My son goes to school from 7:45-3. He first gets a snack and then homework. Homework should not be more than 20 minutes. If it is, talk to the teacher. I'm a teacher and a mom of 2. I would never want my child or my studetns to have 2 hours of homework. Even if its because they have add. He needs to be a kid. The other thing I have done is write a schedule for my son. We laminate it, put velcro on it and put it on the refrigerator. This way he can carry it around if needed. Maybe create a written schedule and post it. My son actually enjoys the schedule and he does very well with it. We have one for morning routine and evening routine.

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Marcy said: You just wrote about my life. My son is 7 (2nd grade) and has inattentive ADD and hes on focalin XR (10mg). What we have done is basically put my son and his routine 1st. First talk to his doctor about maybe getting an additional dosage for homework time. So far we haven't needed this, but homework just started for my son. My son goes to school from 7:45-3. He first gets a snack and then homework. Homework should not be more than 20 minutes. If it is, talk to the teacher. I'm a teacher and a mom of 2. I would never want my child or my studetns to have 2 hours of homework. Even if its because they have add. He needs to be a kid. The other thing I have done is write a schedule for my son. We laminate it, put velcro on it and put it on the refrigerator. This way he can carry it around if needed. Maybe create a written schedule and post it. My son actually enjoys the schedule and he does very well with it. We have one for morning routine and evening routine.

I did talk to the Doctor. They preferred us to bump him to 15 mg instead of having him on the 10 mg like your son. They want me to wait it out a bit on the 15 mg instead of adding a booster.

Homework has never taken us less than 20 minutes. Not only does DS have the ADHD (mainly inattentive) + having it be the end of a long school day, but he's a very creative artist and a perfectionist of sorts. Everything has to be elaborate and just right. If they say that Tina had 19 action figures in a word problem, he's going to choose to draw action figures instead of dots to represent them. I don't know how long this homework takes the "average" child, but I don't for see it ever taking us 10-15 min like they say. The homework took much longer than that in Kindergarten (for him).

I am wanting to implement a schedule like you speak of and put it in concrete format for him as well. That's why I posted here. The problem is that I'm not sure what his schedule should be. We're doing the snack in the car, so that's covered, but no telling how long homework or the bath will take. I've actually started using a timer for the bath. Plus, it seems like he wants to play outside before and after dinner . . . or he'll get caught up in drawing after school, and, then, later he will remember he didn't play outside and want to do it when it's inconvenient. Once we finally are in schedule mode at night he decides after having teeth brushed that he needs a snack, and then another snack . . . it just goes on and on. He's really great during the day, but the late afternoon/evening is a mess!

I have 2 other children (one VERY high maintenance girl and one easy going baby). I feel like life revolves around DS and keeping him on task, and the others (especially the high maintenance middle child) are affected by that.

What does your schedule look like? Is it working for your family?

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d.r.johnson said: Is it possible to give your son a small dose of Focalin - non XR - to get him through the evening routine?

Has his teacher adjusted his homework? You can try documenting how much time he spends. Ask the teacher how long he should spend on homework. Then after he's worked on it for his allotted time, sign off & let him decompress.

If that doesn't work, and there are a couple of spots where it can break down. the teacher may not cooperate, your son might catch on to the possibility that he could not try at all.

Try to get someone else to supervise your son's homework. Preferably someone at school, like a special ed teacher or his classroom teacher. If you get nowhere with the school, try an older neighbor kid. Sometimes a child will bend over backwards to cooperate with an attractive teen while they would completely blow off Mom.

I'm also wondering if you can ease off on your schedule a bit. Maybe he can stay up till 8pm? Maybe you could use the later bedtime as an incentive to make an honest effort on his homework. Maybe at his age, he doesn't require a bath every night. Maybe twice a week would suffice. I know my kids used to eat up the whole evening on the just the bath project alone.

I'm not comfortable asking for his homework to be adjusted at this point. However, if this continues to be a problem, I may ask if we can get the packet the weekend before. I am thinking of setting a timer for 20 minutes for the homework, though, and, if he doesn't finish in that time, we move on and at least take a break.

Again, I don't want to ask the school to make special arrangements for doing homework with him. I am thinking of hiring a college student to help us with the kids in the afternoons, though, and we could see if he responded to them better . . . or at least keep the girls out of the area where he's doing his homework.

I'm fine with him going to bed at 8, but he is still so tired going to bed a little before 8 that I really think he needs it. He's still new to this all day school routine. I wake him as late as possible, as well.

We really can't for go bathing after a school day. He gets too dirty and sweaty. On weekends, we'll skip nights, if not dirty.

This homework is really so easy for him. He will give an immediate answer (correctly) to the problems. He gets so caught up in the details when putting them down on paper. Same thing in the bath, dinner, etc. Just gets caught up in unimportant stuff instead of sticking with the task at hand.

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spanannie said:

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Marcy said: You just wrote about my life. My son is 7 (2nd grade) and has inattentive ADD and hes on focalin XR (10mg). What we have done is basically put my son and his routine 1st. First talk to his doctor about maybe getting an additional dosage for homework time. So far we haven't needed this, but homework just started for my son. My son goes to school from 7:45-3. He first gets a snack and then homework. Homework should not be more than 20 minutes. If it is, talk to the teacher. I'm a teacher and a mom of 2. I would never want my child or my studetns to have 2 hours of homework. Even if its because they have add. He needs to be a kid. The other thing I have done is write a schedule for my son. We laminate it, put velcro on it and put it on the refrigerator. This way he can carry it around if needed. Maybe create a written schedule and post it. My son actually enjoys the schedule and he does very well with it. We have one for morning routine and evening routine.

I did talk to the Doctor. They preferred us to bump him to 15 mg instead of having him on the 10 mg like your son. They want me to wait it out a bit on the 15 mg instead of adding a booster.

Homework has never taken us less than 20 minutes. Not only does DS have the ADHD (mainly inattentive) + having it be the end of a long school day, but he's a very creative artist and a perfectionist of sorts. Everything has to be elaborate and just right. If they say that Tina had 19 action figures in a word problem, he's going to choose to draw action figures instead of dots to represent them. I don't know how long this homework takes the "average" child, but I don't for see it ever taking us 10-15 min like they say. The homework took much longer than that in Kindergarten (for him).

I am wanting to implement a schedule like you speak of and put it in concrete format for him as well. That's why I posted here. The problem is that I'm not sure what his schedule should be. We're doing the snack in the car, so that's covered, but no telling how long homework or the bath will take. I've actually started using a timer for the bath. Plus, it seems like he wants to play outside before and after dinner . . . or he'll get caught up in drawing after school, and, then, later he will remember he didn't play outside and want to do it when it's inconvenient. Once we finally are in schedule mode at night he decides after having teeth brushed that he needs a snack, and then another snack . . . it just goes on and on. He's really great during the day, but the late afternoon/evening is a mess!

I have 2 other children (one VERY high maintenance girl and one easy going baby). I feel like life revolves around DS and keeping him on task, and the others (especially the high maintenance middle child) are affected by that.

What does your schedule look like? Is it working for your family?

I have his routine (not by time) on the frig and in his room. We use timers all the time So far, we haven't had any trouble with homework completiion, but it really hasn't started yet. He's had a few worksheets. As a teacher (1st grade) I loved to see the creativity behind the kids work. It will probably drive you insane though. One thought....let him draw the pics,etc. and if there is time he can color them. That way he might be more willing to work/draw a little faster. Or use a timer (10 minute increaments). If he comples the work before the timer goes off he can add color,pics, etc. You could also use incentives....I use FOOD! We have toosie rolls. Mykids love them. If he beats the timer he gets a toosie roll,etc.

my son will forget also that he wanted to play outside (after dinner) and I basically tell him he has to wait until tomorrow. This caused a few meltdowns for about 2 days and then he realized what he needed to do.

Take a look at his homework and judge about how much time it should take a 1stgrader (maybe even a K). So any extra time he spends on his homework is time taken out of his playtime. When he realized this maybe (and hopefully) he'll speed it up. My son needs complete quiet for homework. That another reason my daughter is in her room.

My family is a lot happier now. We just started medication 6 weeks ago. We started a "written down" schedule 2 weeks ago. It does mak a huge difference.

sometimes kids respond differently to other people then they do to mom and dad. If you get a college student to help, he/she might be able to motivate. My son is like that. As a teacher, I would have parents say "you got her to do_" I wasn't mom.

Asking for the homework packet before the weekend is a great idea! Escpecially if they know why. If they object, then MAYBE she might let you write the answers that your son says.

I know this is frustrating...BEEN THERE!! Hang in there...it will get better. Please keep me informed. You never know I might have other ideas for you to try:)

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I am a middle science teacher and I also run an after school homework help program at my school. I have worked with numerous students with ADHD, and have suffered myself with attentional issues for as long as I can remember. Adjusting the afternoon schedule for your child is definitely the key to homework and overall school success. The adjustments may require a bit of trial and error, but some possibilities include taking a break to run around outside before starting homework, having a snack before starting homework, or just starting homework right away. Your child may also need to take frequent breaks during homework, but these breaks should be short. Start with small goals for the amount of work to complete before the next break so your child will feel empowered and not overwhelmed. For example, do 4 math problems, then take a break to have a small snack, or finish your spelling homework, then take a break to listen to music for one song (and dance if you want to). Gradually increase the time between breaks and you can also make the breaks longer if enough work is getting done in between. I hope these suggestions are helpful to you and others in the ADHD/ADD community. You can find many more suggestions in a new App for the iPhone/iPod Touch called Pocket Teacher which is full of homework, studying, and organizational strategies that have worked for countless numbers of my students and their parents. Please check out my information page at www.PepperDogSoft.com/PocketTeacher and consider buying the App which is now just 99 CENTS. Best of luck to you and your child.

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I'm sure you are frustrated. Trying to manage three kids must be tiring.

You might get some tips from this article about creating a routine to help your ADHD kid stay on task-- Organization Help for ADHD Kids and their Parents. It even includes a sample routine.

This article about Homework Tips also includes a sample homework routine for ADHD kids.

Good luck, Dena

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