[Reva]

I could have written this when my ds was 9. This child has hated school since day 1.

My sweet ds sounds like yours, but thankfully it's getting better. (However, i have no doubt he would be labeled as ADHD if he went to public school. He cannot sit still, constantly fidgets, etc. I don't know if you're dealing with any of that or not. )

A typical school day for us used to be I would tell him to work on x,y,z. Then I would get up and either step over to dd's table, go do laundry ( I can still see him), do dishes, etc. Every time I glanced at him, he would be writing, so I assumed he was doing his work. LOL I would come back to find that he was doodling the entire time. He just couldn't do anything w/o me sitting right beside him. If I sat right beside him (not even helping, I just had to physically be there) he could complete all of his work. He still grumbled, and sometimes cried but he did it.

So, I had to change the way I school. Now, dd gets up early and is at her table by 8 am or so. (She is wired that way, thankfully!) I help her until 9:30 or so, and by then ds has gotten up, gotten dressed, had breakfast, etc. Since dd has gotten all of her harder subjects out of the way by that point, I'm free to devote the next few hours to ds, while dd works on her easier subjects.

It took me a long time to understand that he is just not going to be like his sister. She's a go getter, loves school, etc. He is completely the opposite, and he needs more help. That's ok.

Since I started helping more, he has actually started becoming more independent. I think a lot of it is a maturity thing too.

Just hang in there mama! It will (hopefully) get better.