Before I get started with this post, I just want to thank everyone for their kind comments (here and on facebook) regarding my last post. It means a lot to me. And I’m feeling tons better. It’s so nice to have the energy I need to keep up around here. It’s awesome. No more dragging out of bed in the morning and I don’t need to sit and recoup as much anymore. Love it! Alright, down to business 
Last post, I talked about the disorders that we face and touched a little on how they affect daily life. Well, we also pick up a few tricks along the way or get a bit creative to bound over the hurdles that present themselves. One such hurdle is resistance to starting. ADHD kids look at the big picture and get overwhelmed. And then they refuse to even start. It’s like dragging a donkey down a path. So the trick is getting them to realize that they don’t have to ‘eat the whole elephant’ at once, so to speak, lol.
So we are trying a new thing here. Instead of asking my ADHD kiddos to “clean up their room” or “clean the playroom” or “pick all of that mess up”, I’ve been asking them at random points to “Stop and give me 10″. It means they stop what they are doing at that particular moment and each one picks up 10 things. I don’t care what they pick up, it just has to be 10 things and they need to go in the right places. It’s working pretty well. It cuts down on them feeling overwhelmed and saying “It’s too hard” or “There’s too much”. And it actually makes an impact. That’s 4 kids x 10 things put away = 40 things in their places. Plus I help right along with them so we can really make an impact even when they’ve created bigtime clutter. Because let’s face it, 4 kiddos may be able to clean pretty quick when they get down to it, but they can also make a house look like a tornado hit in the blink of an eye If you find your little ones have a serious case of ’startitis’, give this a try. Have a great weekend!
Genius! Now if it will work for my little guys. I’m totally going to try it.
great tip!! I will implement this at my house too. Thanks for sharing.
Oh, I’m so sorry to be late reading your last post! I’m extremely glad you found something to help you feel better…this is one of the most difficult hurdles to get over. If you don’t feel good, nothing feels right.
Another way to help with ADHD and cleaning up rooms (as I’m very experienced at, but mostly just let her (and him) get away with murder, lol!) is to have her go in and pick up one type of item…say clothes. It becomes more of a treasure hunt, and she could just focus on one “type” of thing, rather than the entire mess. When she’d finish that, I’d say, “Okay, now find all the dolls and put them in this container.” This method seems to be very effective at getting their minds focused on a single item, and then the big picture doesn’t even get looked at, until finally they realize that “Hey! The room is pretty much clean!”
Hope that helps a little…
Bethany~
Blimey, I wish I had thought of that when mine were able to tidy – now they are all teenagers and beyond they seem to have mysteriously lost all ability to do anything other than xbox/text/eat
Glad you are feeling more upbeat!