The installation of the dreaded "routine"

I have always hated routine, despite knowing I need it to actually make sure I get anything done, so having to start creating one to get Gordy back into his schooling (and actually DO some schooling this time round, instead of like term 4 last year which became one big holiday), is quite a challenge for me... but one I'm slowly working on. When we started getting back into things last week, I just started nice and slow with one task each day. Some days it was drawing, some days it was photography or photoshop, some days it was writing. Later on in the week I bumped it up to a couple of tasks a day. Today, we managed 4, plus his housework chores, which have been left to slide for quite a while. Almost every day this week, I've gotten Gordy to do up another "piece" of the story I was planning on getting him to write today. Monday was creating the main character for the story, and describing it. Tuesday was creating the "where" the story would take place. Wednesday we were out most of the day, so didn't do anything. Thursday brought about the "what" that was going to happen to the character in the story. Then today, Friday, came the writing of the actual story... the putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. This turned out to be a far more successful process than any other I've tried so far. Ok, the story could've been quite a bit longer, with quite a few more details needing to be filled in, but that's something we'll work on as we get into it more. The biggie, as far as I was concerned, was that the usual dramas were pretty much absent this time round. Although he admitted to still finding the writing things down made him nervous, the usual fuss that would have blown into full on drama was rather easily diverted, especially after reassuring him that I wasn't expecting perfection nor a whole chapter book first time round. I've told him we'll do this each week too... break it down into small bits, and he just works on one bit each day, and on the friday of each week, writes the story putting all the pieces together. He actually seemed almost excited about the idea! Ok, who's taken off with my son and left a changling in his place???
Then there's his art. Now I have a huge stack of assorted drawing books, and he has been getting more and more willing to grab his drawing pad, one of the books, and have a go at drawing something out of it. This was helped a LOT when I gave him the book I have that shows you how to draw the dragons etc from the Deltora Quest books, which he's currently reading and absolutely LOVING. So of course, he dived into the book, and has had a go already at most of the different dragons and characters in there. The other day he even grabbed the book without even being ASKED, and did another drawing. There is definitely an improvement in his artwork now... a lot better than the stick figures with scribbled clothing. He's getting rather good (for a beginner 8-year old artist) at copying from the books. Once he's gotten the confidence with his drawing from that, I'll start getting him to draw more and more from real life instead of books, but I still throw a bit of that in every now and then anyways.
Reading of course is something I don't have to ask him to do. He dives into his book quite regularly when he's got nothing else to do... either that, or works on the big dragon puzzle that's currently spread out across the table in the lounge. So far, it's all his work, and it's already about half done. Seriously gotta start getting in there with him!
I decided today that it was time we brought the dreaded maths work back into the equation (yeah ok, bad BAD pun), but with wanting to keep his least favourite topic somewhat interesting, I let him have a go with some of the maths games on this site... http://www.toonuniversity.com/. A LOT of the games on there are only available to paying members, but there's still quite a few good ones that are free (and not JUST maths games either). So that was maths, with no grizzles whatsoever, and with a whole heap of fun. He did pretty good with them too.
So... improvements are slowly coming with his attitude, and a routine is inching its way into place. I'm hoping to have a reasonably stable routine in place by the time term 1 actually starts. For the social side of things, we're looking into things like gym classes (he has ALWAYS loved gym when he did it at daycare and school), drama classes (give the drama "king" in him somewhere to actually roam free and be taught how to use it properly and appropriately), cubs, and sports... probably badminton from what I've seen so far. Then of course there's also his swimming, which starts back up again. Don't think we'll be doing ALL of these... probably too darn expensive, and I don't want to wear him out with too much on his plate. But I'll be doing the ring-around on Monday to find out what costs what, and then we'll decide what we can afford and what suits better from there.
It is a pleasure though seeing the changes in him... a happier boy who is far more willing to help out around the home without the fuss that was so "normal" for him before, and who is slowly becoming more willing to at least try things without talking his way out of it first. I don't know what the year ahead holds for us... but I know it will be a busy one!! Looking forward to it though! *s*