More 12 year old drama. A few weeks ago, in celebration of Princess's 12th birthday, we went shopping and got her a bunch of really cute clothes because her wardrobe was pretty pathetic and things weren't fitting. However, many of the items we bought are still on their hangers with the tags still on. In my new "We Will Be Organized Or Die Trying" mode, I told Princess that she needed to pick out her Sunday clothes on Saturday. I am fairly certain I told her to do this twice. I am almost positive I told her to do this 3 times. But come Sunday morning, 20 minutes before we are to head out the door, I am scrambling to get the boys dressed and ready and Princess is still sitting in her PJ's. I told her to get dressed. She plops down on her bed and sighs.
Oh No You Don't.
I continue to get ready. The clock is ticking and I am not ready, only half-dressed and half-way done with my hair.
Princess, you need to get dressed.
"I don't know what to wear."
You have at least 5 brand new, cute tops to wear. Pick one. I don't even care if you wear jeans because you don't have many skirts. But you have to put something on.
More sighs.
You are 12 years old. And way too old to have your Mommy pick out your clothes. You have until I have my hair done and am dressed to get yourself ready. That is about 10 minutes.
When I finished getting ready, I found her sitting on the yoga ball in our closet, pouting.
Are you dressed?
"Yes."
Then what are you doing in the closet?
"Just sitting here."
I am trying to laugh about this even though at the time I was incredibly frustrated. If I don't laugh about it, I am going to start pouting and park myself on the yoga ball in my closet and pout until things go my way.
The other event of the weekend was Banana Boy's science fair project. He did not tell me that he had this HUGE project to do until a week ago. Part of the project entailed conducting an experiment. We had very little time so we needed a quick experiment.
I told him about my vinegar egg experiment that I did in chemistry and mentioned the word "osmosis". Right then and there I knew I had gone over his head. He liked the egg idea. I googled the experiment and found a very cool way to tie the experiment into something he could relate to...or should relate to: How cavities are formed.
He liked the idea. However, for the ADHD child, the long-haul big-picture process is a bit daunting and very overwhelming. Not to mention he struggles with procrastination. I did not realize either that he was doing no research or work on this in school. It was to be done completely at home. So, we spent President's day scrambling to get everything done for his tri-fold poster. I did get his marginal participation in the experiment. I took pictures over the weekend and got him into the pictures as often as I could. We talked about the experiment as much as I could get his attention.
But in the end, I was the one who was up to 10pm putting the last finishing touches on his poster and gluing things down. His siblings think it is very cool. I hope we got everything he needed. I hope I did enough teaching and talking with him about cavities and the connection to the calcium in the egg shell and the chicken bones that we soaked in vinegar.
I am anxious to hear about it when he gets home from school. I also want to know what kind of grade I will get in science. :)
2 comments:
This may seem like WAY too much work, but it really helps me, and it might help Princess . . . in my "Saturday" folder, I keep track of what I wear to church every week. So if I have five church outfits, I just rotate through the those outfits, no questions asked. I do the same thing for the kids because nobody can ever remember what we wore the week before! So after Sunday breakfast, my kids just ask me what they're supposed to wear because they know I've consulted "the list."
I've found that this also takes the "emotion" out of deciding what to wear; instead of my focus being "What do I feel like today?" or "What will people think of me?" -- I can just focus on getting dressed because I have already determined (maybe several months ago) that this particular outfit is an acceptable outfit for this occasion.
Does Princess like lists or charts? It might help!
Oh, I know your son's pain - I am a procrastinator and I am trying not to allow my children to fall into my bad habit!! I love that you linked the egg experiment to cavities! That was a stroke of brilliance! If he liked doing that egg experiment, he may like this one (http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/how-to-make-a-folding-egg). My daughter's teacher recommended it and my kids LOVED it! Enjoy!!
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