Om, the Power of Distraction

I ironed and taped this math homework that came home wet and torn.
I ironed (yes, ironed) and taped this math homework that came home wet and torn.

In the Beginning

Second grade started okay. P seemed to be bringing home the notes and forms from school. Then his take-home folder, which should hold those forms and notes, disappeared. Homework started coming home wet and torn. (It’s a 15 minute trip from classroom door to our house. What the heck happens?) I got an email that P wasn’t turning in homework. What the heck? He did the homework every night. It left for school in his backpack every morning. Was he eating it? When his math homework came home with unidentifiable food (not stains, but food) all over it I could ignore it no longer. 

Reality Hits & I Hit Back

First I started cracking down on his organizational skills. A morning and evening checklist and a little monetary reward worked really well keeping him focused on what he needed to get done. He was doing better keeping track of school stuff and keeping things more organized at home.
Children'sChecklist
Printable courtesy of 30 Handmade Days

Things were shaping up at home, but completed homework and forms were still going MIA between home and school. At his most recent conference we worked with his teacher to find a solution. We came up with a daily school-checklist signed by his teachers at school and then by us at home.

And the Hits Keep on Coming

The very first day the school checklist came home he forgot to bring the assigned book home. The very first day. Okay, deep breath. We headed to the library to check out the missing book, but it got me thinking. What is happening in the 30 seconds between getting the homework and opening his backpack? He’s thinking about other stuff. He’s distracted.

Enter: meditation and mindfulness.

Meditation: Not for the Faint of Heart

Last night we started what I hope will be a new nightly routine of meditating together. Earlier in the school year my mom had worked with his class on mindfulness a few times and he sure does like the meditation game on the Wii Fit balance board. I thought it’d be a piece of cake.

At least the Mindfulness Bell app keeps ME focused.
At least the Mindfulness Bell app keeps ME focused.

Three minutes sounded reasonable for the first try.

“I get to ring the meditation bell three times to start!” He says, grabs my phone and “dong, dong, dong….dong, dong, dong-ity dong, dong, dong, dong!” I snatched it back. Things were going well so far…

He settled back into the couch. “Okay. Let. The. Glitter. Settle.” He said in all seriousness, sitting upside down, head hanging off the couch, hands positioned in mudras. “ohmmmmmmm.”

I rolled my eyes, smiled and started the timer. Four seconds in & he was twisting his body back and forth. I stopped the timer, reset him and the timer and tried again.

He laid down with his legs on my lap. I breathed deeply, trying to stay in the moment when first one of his legs started bouncing then the other. Then they were alternating…to a beat and he said, “How long did we do so far, Mom?”

It had only been 30 seconds, at most. I kept breathing and tried to stay focused. Finally the timer sounded, he bounded off the couch and headed down the hall to see what dad was doing. Nailed it.

P’s a force to be reckoned with, but then again, so am I. Tonight we use with the Wii Fit balance board. Or I farm out meditation training to Grandma. Either way that kid is going to learn to focus.

6 Comments

  1. Love this post! Great idea to try the Wii balance board again, since he seems to like meditating that way! May also want to start with shorter meditation periods…say 1 minute and work up VERY gradually!

    • Thanks for the advice. I knew we wouldn’t get very far the first few weeks, but I didn’t realize I would need a time-out after the first session 😉 We used the Wii balance board last night and it worked much better!

  2. My son is in 4th grade and we had the same problems then, and they are just getting better now. However, with the state writing test coming up, we’re combating him singing or talking to himself in class. If the meditation (or anything else) works, let me know. Thanks for sharing and linking up with Countdown in Style! Don’t forget to come back on Friday to see if you were featured!

    ~~April~~
    100lbCountdown.com

  3. Interesting! I wonder what he was actually doing with his homework though. Was he eating while he had the papers out like an after school snack or something. I won’t be sending my kids to school so I have no idea how we would get to the bottom of something like that. Thanks for sharing with us at Countdown in Style! Don’t forget to stop by Friday to see if you are featured! xo

  4. What an awesome idea! My 7 year old is highly distracted as well. I’ve never actually done a meditation time with him but when I see that things are getting a little too wild, we all lay down on the living room floor and we work on taking deep breaths. We do it for about 30 seconds or so. My son has ADHD and this is something we learned in behavioral therapy to help him maintain focus when he feels like he can’t. It seems like the theory is the same and it does work.

    Thank you for sharing on Bloggy Throwback, hope to see you again on next Thursday.

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