Attitude Adjusting

I have discovered that if we are going to have a peaceful and productive year that there needs to be some attitude adjustments.  I will start with the easiest to change.  Mine.  Too often I allow and even reward behavior that I want to stop.  I also yell more than I would like, and I want to have a peaceful and loving home.  To make that happens it all begins with me.  One solution is that during the day we listen to "light" classical music as our background noise.  It might seem simpler to learn in silence, but then it seems that everything is magnified.  I also notice that with calm music on it seems to help us all remember to be calm. 
The other attitude adjustment that is needed is for the Little Ball of Energy that I love but don't like too often.  He has gotten in the habit of either sneering that everything is hard or dumb, and if that doesn't work then he whines that he is dumb.  He also wastes a lot of my time and his.  I don't mind if he wants to waste his time, but mine is worthy and could be spent on other things.  The real frustration is that when he takes 2 seconds to listen then he is fine and understand what he needs to do.  But getting him in the groove is headache inducing.  I understand that he is ADHD, and that we are choosing not to medicate him into acceptable behavior but this goes beyond just fiddling and fidgeting and he needs to be taught the tools to allow him to flourish.  So I need to do my part and enforce consequences.  Even if that means that for a couple of weeks we won't get quite as much done.  But it is worth it.
Finally the Grinmaster.  He is wonderful and will do anything I ask.  How could he possibly need an attitude adjustment?  Well the problem is that unless I tell him every single thing, he won't take any initiative.  He needs an exhausting amount of hand holding.  I don't blame him, he is used to teachers telling him when to pick up his pencil and when to put it down.  He also comes from a background where doing the wrong thing was always bad, even though mistakes are part of the learning process.  I am trying to praise him more for taking even the smallest risks and working him towards more independence.  I want him to discover the joy of learning for learning sake and not just to get it done for the grade. 
I hope I haven't made being with the kids or educating them seem like a chore.  The majority of the time it is joyful and rewarding and I am blessed with fabulous kids.  But I wanted to take the time to remove the blinders and see where are weaknesses are as well as our strengths and try to bolster those areas.  This entire journey is a learning process for me, not just the kids, and I am sure that as soon as we get into a comfortable groove something will happen and we will face change of some kind.