Way to go Jordan

Jordan brought home the report on his Accelerated Math class that he is in. Actually that is what they call the 5th grade math program, it is basically pre-algebra. I didn't realize how well he was doing. The report shows that his Grade equivalent score is 11.8. Meaning, his work is that of an "average eleventh grader after the eighth month of the school year." His national percentile rank is 95. Meaning, "Jordan scored higher than 95% of students nationally in the same grade." This also makes me remember that Jordan was one of 3 in the 5th grade that received a 5 out of 6 points on the writing prompt for the ISTEP+ this year.

This is so exciting. You see, Jordan is ADHD. Now I don't say that for sympathy. He just is, as well as my husband and middle son. It is just the way life is in our house. (CRAZY! :)) At any rate, he used to struggle so much in school, that I wondered how well he'd do. When I was homeschooling and started to realize that he was having some struggles, and then we heard a program on ADHD on Focus on the Family. We really trust anything that James Dobson would say, he doesn't usually go with the "norm", I feel he follows the Lord in what he airs on his program. We started to pray, and read anything we could find on ADHD. We learned so much. God showed us so much through all this. At any rate, we modified our behavior management, and the way we disciplined the boys, and it helped somewhat. Then at the end of Jordan's 3rd grade year, he just gave up. Literally, he told me that he "couldn't remember anything I taught him, and he was just done." Poor little guy. At that point, after much prayer and discussion between Rob and I, we decided to try an ADHD medicine. Straterra. I know that there is much debate about medication, however, for our family it is been a life saver. Jordan is such a bright child, actually beyond his years at times. He just had such a hard time concentrating, that it was keeping him from learning. Before he started the medicine, he was beginning to call himself stupid, and that I did not like at all. He can tell when he doesn't take his medicine. He can feel it working, and his ability to stay on task. I am so very thankful that God opened our eyes and heart to this method. To some it may seem like the "easy way", but we didn't not resort to this decision lightly. It was after much prayer and study. Last night when Jordan started talking about college, and working on keeping his grades up my husband looked at me and said, "Wow, Thank God for medication," you see the two of them are so much alike, and Rob struggled in school until he graduated. He is so excited to see the opportunities that Jordan will have, just because he can concentrate when he needs to.

Speaking of ADHD and medication. My husband firmly believes that God opened our hearts to medicine so that he'd start taking it and be able to "see" the gospel in the Bible. Rob says he can not even comprehend what he reads at times, when he has taken his medicine. See, God used the medicine so that Rob could slow down long enough to really read and understand the salvation message in the Bible. So that God could open our eyes to the ere in our ways. Isn't God just like that.

Well, enough of my ramblings. I hope all have a blessed day.