Day Dreaming and Homework

I was the same way all through school. The more I didn't do my homework the more I didn't know how to do the work later on, especially math. I spent more time making excuses (arguing,etc.), to get out of doing the work, than had I just done it and have it out of the way.
I was diagnosed in my 30's with ADD Attention Deficit Disorder when my lack of attention to work was affecting my job. Daydreaming is a good thing but it has it's time and place.

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I agree with (almost) all the possibilities mentioned. My 9 year old daughter was just tested last year through her school to see if she qualified for special education. Strong districts will offer this without having to ask, but ALL public schools should have it available...and it is not the special ed we all grew up with. It is not one size fits all and testing results will dictate what kind/how much support the school is obligated to offer (parents can accept...and they can refuse too). At any rate, my daughter tested well and did not qualify. I had already had her food-tested (finding out she was highly sensitive to wheat dairy and eggs). When it was determined she did not have "special ed" needs and we had long since removed food sensitivities from her diet and had her on high-omega 3/DHA fish oil for a full year....we accepted that she has some serious focus/attention issues...but she is selective. She can memorize a Taylor Swift song after 1-2 listens, and can read easily. But math/math concepts have been a struggle for her since kindergarten.
Now....I will say that it is hard to determine if the attention issue is chemical or "learned". I say learned because she figured out early on how to survive "not understanding what all of her peers were understanding". First (before we knew there was a problem), she cheated/copied. It was a survival mechanism, not 'being naughty'. And unfortunately, math is a "building" subject. So if you don't have the initial foundation, you can not move forward truly understanding. In in today's curriculum (and my daughter's district, Bloomfield Hills), the curriculum moves fast (and ALL over the place, which I hate!). But then secondly, after we found out she had cheated...we had to leave room for the possibility that she was not daydreaming in the classroom, but instead "checking out"/going someplace safe/comfortable in her mind where she didn't feel so inadequate from not understanding. So is she really attention challenged or just unconfident and scared? Either way, we were on a mission to get her cofidence up or make sure it hadn't suffered too much. I will never care if my kids get amazing grades. I just want them to be happy, healthy and kind...and confidence/good self esteem are critical to that goal. And so in order to make sure she could keep up and not feel inadequate (esp as things get more difficult in the older grades), last year (actually the end of the previous year) I went into full swing with an action plan:

1) Had her placed into the right teacher's classroom (this teacher is solid, and she sets the standard in her classroom as calm and structured...as opposed to a more laid back classroom where students can get out of their seats/talk whenever they want---that is the WORST atmosphere for a child who struggles to focus)
2) Made sure she received the support (she is entitled to) to help in the areas she may be struggling with. The school offers it with a "support" teacher, and I asked her (excellent) main teacher to determine when she needed it outside of her classroom (only during lessons she believes my daughter was strong enough in to miss)
3) Found her/stayed with an excellent tutor once a week. This has been for the past two years (right after we discovered the poor thing was cheating to keep up), and we continue through the summers (though she gets a few weeks off here/there). Our particular tutor is a retired "support" teacher from the Farmington Hills district. All she used to do was come up with various ways (trick, almost) to help the kids who struggled with the regular curriculum, to learn the same essentials but in a 'customized' way. She is not cheap, but she is the only reason my daughter figured out her basic addition subtraction, multiplication facts.
4) Limit the TV!!! TV makes a daydreamer's mind even more mushy. During the schoolyear, I do not allow any Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, Disney-anything basically...or any of the other garbage that makes my daughter "check out" even more. I let her indulge in it in the summer, but even then I limit it.
5) A clean room and neat place are critical to a daydreamer/attention challenged child. Less distraction/less chaos is critical. This one is admittedly hard for me because my husband is gone every week and I also have a 10 year old that sometimes needs my help and a 2 year old who ALWAYS wants my attention! So chaos almost always ensues :( but we try hard to keep things calm.
6) I have just resigned myself to the fact that I will be basically doing her homework with her (NOT "for" her) for an indefinitely long time/as long as she needs me to.
7) Healthy discipline/structure are actually something my daughter needs (even when it's not convenient for me). So I try to keep her/my other kids respectful with consequences...but with a lot of explanations so they understand. Then, when I say time to do homework, they don't fight (quite) as much and it ends up getting done at the same time every day.

The only thing I have not done is medicate her. And I never will because I don't want to tamper with her personality (LOVE her heart and exactly who she is!!!) and we have had luck/improvement with all of our other efforts (fish oil and good diet included). We are nowhere near home free, and it will always be ongoing work, but it we are SO far ahead of where we used to be! Everyone has their own views on medicating for this issue, I am personally not an advocate but have nothing against anyone who is. It's a very personal decision.
Hope this helps a little, and sorry to go on so much...I just have a soft spot for these kids who struggle.

Tell your sister to try working in short sessions= like 10 minutes each. Set a timer and make sure her daughter knows that at the end of that time, there will be a break- but she MUST work on things during that time.

Make sure she is set up at a table or desk with no TV on or other distractions. I sometimes put some light classical music on in the kitchen when my son is doing homework, just as background noise, but without words to distract him.

Before you set the timer, go over either the worksheet or page or material she has to answer questions on. Like I said, set her up for success, so that both she and her mom know going into it that she is capable of figuring out that problem or has read the material she has to answer questions on. Being confident about being able to DO the work will help her to focus as well.

Do 3 or 4 of these short 10 minute sessions per day. It will add up=- but it is a lot easier for a child to concentrate for 10 minutes on something than for 30 minutes straight!

My son and I fought some homework battles last year, lol, but he seems to have it together now. Hopefully this works for your niece!

She should be evaluated for attention deficit disorder, which isn't always accompanied by hyperactivity. My granddaughter's brain just wanders. Most of these kids are very smart, but need medication to help them focus and concentrate.

Goodness, almost all the answers below I don't agree with. I could be wrong.
I say this because of my nephew.
He hated doing his homework. He most of the time would lie to his mom and say he didn't have any, or had it done. (this is about 7-8th grade, and some before that). So his grade on his report cards, were C's at best (mostly D-E's).
BUT when he did a test, he'd get an A. My sister did not understand why he had such a hard time with homework.
My kids are homeschooled, and with the research I did prior to H.S.ing, I learned that sometimes (not always, but most of the time) the kids is bored. If you were given a page of addition facts to 20 to do everyday, would your mind not wander as well? I know I would if I had to repeatedly do what I know how to do. Perhaps she knows the material, thus the random A's, but gets very bored doing the homework!
Now, my nephew is in HighSchool and he picks his own classes, where he is able to go with what he knows. His report cards are now mostly A's! Because if he is good at math, he can pick Algebra instead of PreAlgebra.
My family homeschools for a number of reasons, and being able to go at the child's pace is one of them. My kids are going at there speed.
Maybe your neice should not be tested only to find out if she is not understanding things, but also to find out if she is more advanced! Like I said, she could just be bored because she knows how to do the work already, and needs to be able to spread her wings!!
If she can be homeschooled, I strongly suggest it!

It's possible that your niece has a form of ADD. There is a type called "inattentive ADD", and this type is more likely to be seen in girls than in boys. It is also less likely be diagnosed, since the symptoms tend to be less disruptive to classrooms and families, though they can wreak havoc on the individual.

Here are a few links:
https://www.adda-sr.org/reading/Articles/mooreinattentive...
http://www.addvance.com/help/parents/gifted_child.html
http://helpguide.org/mental/adhd_add_signs_symptoms.htm
http://www.chrisdendy.com/abc.htm

This sounds like a very good description of ADHD inatentive type. I would suggest that your sister rule out a medical issue before blaming her for a very treatable issue. That she can function sometimes is not an indication that the condition does not exist. A child psychiatrist and an evaluation by a neuropsychologist will give her the answer for sure. Education is a school issue, and this child should have been referee by her teacher for an evaluation already. This is an extremely common sceanario in bad school districts. Your sister should own the medical diagnosis, but the school is responsible for providing the child an education that she can access, not for insisting that the parent make her better able to access educational services the way they choose to offer them.

Rule out ADHD inventive type before doing anything else.

M.

from the sounds of it u answered ur own ? u need to have her at ur house to get it done. or ur sister needs to not give in and start getting firm. take things to her away if she is not doing her homework. important things n don't give in when there done.