Adult AD/HD Ambitions #1

My schedule has become wide open recently due to two of my homeschooled kids going back to public schools. One I'm happy about because she's learning disabled and I questioned my ability to adequately handle her needs. Besides, this six year old did not take to homeschooling well at all. "I want to go to real school," was her mantra. The second child, my nine year old, needed homeschool because she was allergic to No Child Left Behind. I spent all last year teaching her how to read, how to add and subtract, and how to write well. She, I discovered, was one of those functional illiterates. She pulled the wool over all our eyes until I began homeschooling her. What a lot of work that was to get her caught up, but it was worth it. Now she craves a social outlet and since we are in a different school district it is possible the same problems will not arise. We'll see.

I believe that education must be fun and interesting for children, so if homeschooling is dragging them down then either I change my game or we change their learning environment. In this case, public school was the solution. I'm still homeschooling my thirteen year old which is working out for us, but I'll miss teaching my nine year old, even if she did drive me crazy.


Now that I have more time (since my thirteen year old is self-efficient), what will I do with it? Read news? Post on slashdot and digg? Make custom icons on my dock? Read some more news? If you have Adult AD/HD then you know how much of a time sink the internet can be. It's the perfect distraction. One glowing window within our immediate field of focus offering limitless opportunity for new and exciting images, text, sounds, and more. Since I've decided to make mastering my AD/HD a goal for my 42nd rotation around our sun I thought I'd chart my progress on my blog and invite others to participate.

Here's how it will work. I'll post every Monday what my goal is for the week. It may be something simple like "Remember to use timers" or something more challenging like "Break my news addiction" or even "Be on time everywhere everyday this week." Post what your goals are and check back with your progress throughout the week. Together we might make a difference in each others' lives. Or at least we can laugh at each other. I expect nothing short of comical failure for some of my goals, especially any that require punctuality. However, even if we are on medications, AD/HD doesn't go away. We need to train ourselves to cope and function so that we can improve our quality of life.

That's how I see it at any rate. Let's get this week started. Worse case scenario, I make a fool of myself and my readers have a good laugh at my expense. Best case scenario? I master these annoying little foibles of mine.

This week's goal: Be Perfect Begin with the end in mind by remembering to use timers

This is going to be an ambition of mine that I'll visit over and over again throughout the year. I have a timer for my Dashboard (ProdMe) and a timer in my iPhone. Both of these can make sure that I don't spend longer working on projects than I have time for. Theoretically. (^_-)

Update 1/21/08 2:23:40 PM: Thanks for participating. I'm closing the comments for this post. Starting up the next post on Adult ADHD

tags technorati : ADD ADHD AD/HD Cognitive Behavior Therapy Coping Strategies iPhone

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