Still Struggling

  He is still struggling. We started a new ADHD med last Thursday. I hate to do that but he is miserable. We are only giving it to him every other day and only during school weeks. The great news is that he had grown 1.5 inches and gained 12 pounds since September. We really need to keep that growth going. There are only 34 more school days this year and then he will come of the drugs again. Ugh. Parenting a little hot mess of a RADlet is soooo hard!
  So yesterday I was at the school mentoring some kids when his teacher found me. She did not look happy. He had forged her initials  on his reading log thinking that he could fool her and be able to attend the ice cream party that afternoon. Since August they have been doing this reading game called Readopoly. In order to participate in the ice cream party, the students needed to have read and written a very short description for 12 books. Not chapter books, simple books. Since August. They even worked on these at Library time and in the classroom. How many had he completed? None. Zero. Zippo. Nada. Even though he had read many more books than that. He just never filled out the worksheet. (The worksheet involved writing 3 sentences, drawing 3 pictures and write the title and author.) Now here it is time for ice cream and he was under pressure. Solution? Lie and cheat. Thank goodness he is horrible at forging and equally bad at lying. Oh, he lies often, just not well. He might as well hold up a neon sign over his head announcing he is lying.
  At first I was upset that they put these big incentives out there trying to motivate the kids. A kid like mine just doesn't have much ability to look into the future and act accordingly in the present. But then I got to thinking about it. He was totally capable of completing this assignment. In fact, it was optional. No one HAD to do it. They just got a reward if they did complete it. Hmmm, something to think about. Anyway, I told him he was going to be completing all of the reading and reports before he got to have any electronics back. No matter how long it takes. You know what that little bugger did? He completed 6 of them yesterday! No complaints, no problems. He did a good job, too. I don't know whether to hug him or throttle him. Maybe both. Multiple times. He is so smart.