Last Friday, a miracle happened..... Maybe nothing that you would consider a miracle, but it my books, it was nothing short of amazing! A typical Friday night around our house... Mason was playing the wii... I was doing laundry and dishes. I told him that he would need to do a page of homework and he immediately started whining and telling me "NO"!! So that's when mom pulled out the bribery... btw I'm the QUEEN of Bribery!! "Mason, if you do one page of homework, then we can go to the store and buy Valentine's for your friends at school". It worked like a charm. He jumped up to the counter and started to pick which page he would do. He picked a page that was double duty, 2 sides of work..... I thought to myself... "This will take forever!" Which means that the idea backfired, because I will have to sit with him for the next half hour and constantly redirect him back to the page and encourage him to do his "BEST" work. Homework is like pulling teeth for me... It would be a lot easier with some vallium present :) Sooooooo I told him to get started while I finished the last couple dishes. He immediately wrote his name at the top of the sheet and began tracing the number 11 on the first part of the page... Hmmmm this is going well. When he finished (without my help btw), he said "mom, what does dat say"? I went over to the counter and read the directions to him! DRAW AND COLOR 11 APPLES The phone rang at that point so I handed him the crayons and ran for the phone. When I came back he had drawn and colored the most beautiful apple I had ever seen! I was amazed and he was proud. So I thought... you're on a roll, don't stop now. I told him to finish all 11 apples... Mason worked very hard while I stayed a short distance away pretending to do dishes. I had never seen him sit in one spot this long, or stay focused on one activity this long and I hadn't once redirected him! Mason drew 11 apples.... colored all 11 apples... stopped after he drew the 11th apple.... didn't run from the table once.... didn't spit on me or hit me.... did both sides of the sheet and was actually happy about doing it! The ending result...... 25 MINUTES... yes you heard me right... 25 MINUTES ...That is how long he sat there doing his homework, by HIMSELF!!! Truly a miracle.....
On a side note... When Mason was about 3 1/2, he was working with his OT. Her name was Trisha! She told me one time that Mason had a very short attention span and they would work on staying focused. Her GOAL the first week was 1 minute! I think after many months, they eventually made it up to 3 minutes, but that was after a lot of hard work and someone sitting with him the entire time. WOW what a long ways he has come.
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