My biggest worry in life right now is William. I have many reasons to worry. The type one diabetes, celiac disease and now ADHD along with dealing with the fallout of everything his mother did to our family. William has a hard time at school with sitting still and listening. He also has a problem with acting out on occasion. I lose sleep at night worrying that he will make the right choices the next day, the next week and for the rest of his life. That is a lot of weight to take on. I can manage the diabetes and celiac for him, for now. It is totally up to him to make the right choices at school and daycare.
I have tried many things to try and motivate him to make good choices. So many days in a row without hitting and he can play video games. That worked for a while. Getting scores above 80% at school. They rate his behavior every half hour. That is a story all in itself. That works some of the time. This week I started something new again. For each day we start off with a goal. The goal has a few parts. First he get to pick a number that he believes that he can achieve the next day. He usually picks 85%. On really good days he will tell me that he is going to get 95%. Then we pick an activity that he is rewarded with if he achieves above 80%. I have been doing this the last three days with great success. Two days ago his goal was 80%. The reward was ice cream for his 8:00pm snack. The first day he got 81% and ice cream. The second day he wanted ice cream again. He got 85% and we went to a local ice cream place and got an ice cream. Today his goal was 86% and he wants to go on a motor cycle ride with me. I will let you know how that turns out.
The way this system works is we talk about the goals at night after we finish reading. What score and what reward he will receive. I talk to him about it again while he is eating breakfast the next morning and then again when I drop him off at school. The morning ritual is; what is the number? What is the reward? How are you going to get to your goal? We talk about not hitting, listening to the teacher, doing his work and a list of a few other things. I tell him that I am proud that he is going to have a super day, that I love him and to have fun at school. I want to plant into his head that he is going to have a good day before he even goes into the building. I really hope this system keeps working. I will let you know. We are transitioning to summer. He will still be going to daycare on my side so there will still be structure in his life. I hope we have fun this summer and that William makes progress with his feelings.
I am rooting for you buddy,
Your Loving Dad
I have tried many things to try and motivate him to make good choices. So many days in a row without hitting and he can play video games. That worked for a while. Getting scores above 80% at school. They rate his behavior every half hour. That is a story all in itself. That works some of the time. This week I started something new again. For each day we start off with a goal. The goal has a few parts. First he get to pick a number that he believes that he can achieve the next day. He usually picks 85%. On really good days he will tell me that he is going to get 95%. Then we pick an activity that he is rewarded with if he achieves above 80%. I have been doing this the last three days with great success. Two days ago his goal was 80%. The reward was ice cream for his 8:00pm snack. The first day he got 81% and ice cream. The second day he wanted ice cream again. He got 85% and we went to a local ice cream place and got an ice cream. Today his goal was 86% and he wants to go on a motor cycle ride with me. I will let you know how that turns out.
The way this system works is we talk about the goals at night after we finish reading. What score and what reward he will receive. I talk to him about it again while he is eating breakfast the next morning and then again when I drop him off at school. The morning ritual is; what is the number? What is the reward? How are you going to get to your goal? We talk about not hitting, listening to the teacher, doing his work and a list of a few other things. I tell him that I am proud that he is going to have a super day, that I love him and to have fun at school. I want to plant into his head that he is going to have a good day before he even goes into the building. I really hope this system keeps working. I will let you know. We are transitioning to summer. He will still be going to daycare on my side so there will still be structure in his life. I hope we have fun this summer and that William makes progress with his feelings.
I am rooting for you buddy,
Your Loving Dad
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