Week one brings game night

Week one of first grade seems to have been a success all around for our Kara. Whether in math, reading, music, art, or making her letters, we can see not only that she was ready for the material, but that she is engaged and learning. Kudos to Mrs. Right. It helps, too, that Kara has a friendly classmate in a girl with whom she attended kindergarten--there are actually four or five kids from her kindergarten who are in other classrooms. And her medication seems to have kept last year's behavioral problems at bay.

Still, L. and I are beginning to see that having a child with ADHD isn't just getting some medication so they can focus at school. No, ADHD means a lifestyle change that we need to make. When her medication wears off in the late-afternoon, Kara can be a real handful! And what would usually pass as bald disobedience: shouting, running, forgetting what you just told her and other actions, are sometimes just the ADHD talking. Take combing Kara's hair. What a chore! Every morning we go three rounds trying to get her to stand still and straight and not to move her head so we can fix her hair. Again and again, year after year, it is the same instructions. But Kara can't hold still. She looks all around, she leans, she even just walks off in mid-braid--exasperating! "Kara," I told her one morning, "why, after three years of hearing the same instructions day after day, can't you just do what we've asked?" Her what-seems chronic disobedience baffles me, until I see it outlined plainly in the literature:

• Inattention Has a hard time paying attention, daydreams, is easily distracted, is disorganized, loses a lot of things.


• Hyperactivity Seems to be in constant motion, has difficulty staying seated, squirms, talks too much.


• Impulsivity Acts and speaks without thinking, unable to wait.

Anyway, to celebrate a week's good work, we're having a family game night, with popcorn and ice cream. Kara wants to play Star Wars Monopoly, and so that's what we'll do, with some Red Sox Collector's Edition UNO as well.

L. also reminded me today that we agreed to teach the elementary class at church for the next month. Time to crack that material and begin putting together a half-hour lesson! I used to love doing nursery at North Shore, and how much more complicated can it be?