Back to school

Stephen started 7th grade on Monday. It's his second year of middle school and the first was pretty bad. We didn't feel like we got the help we needed for our son and it was just a battle that I am afraid that my son lost out on last year.

I am hoping for a much better school year and my goal is to call an IEP meeting pretty soon and get things lined up to help me son stay organized and on task. Sending home homework that my son hasn't even attempted to do isn't going to fly. It's their job to tap him on the shoulder or give him the evil eye that says do you need me to call your parents?

We did start him on add medication a week before school started and honestly I really fought with myself over it all summer long. My husband and I were tossing it around and he was more agaisnt it than I was.

In the end, if my husband isn't driving Stephen to the doctors and counselors then I had the final say.

It's pretty early to tell but I do believe that my son has had less meltdowns since starting the medication. I don't know if that's something it helps with or not.

We have changed things up a bit around here. My son is taking a shower and getting dressed and then eating and getting out the door. We have always done showers at night and my husband thought if he was eager to eat that he wouldn't yell about it and it has really been working so far.

My son comes home at 4pm and goes to bed at 9pm. This gives us a total of five hours that involve homework, chores, and eating dinner and as of right now some down time. I hope to have time to get him to the YMCA once or twice a week since once again he doesn't have gym at school.

We are starting a reward chart with stickers and not sure what the prize is going to be. Right now the most he can earn a day is 3 and it's filled up at 25. I need it to be something not too pricey and something we can fullfill pretty quickly for it to work. Any suggestions?