Child cannot focus at home...help!

Have you tried an earlier bedtime? That is a punishment for my daughters. They like to stay up as late as I'll allow. If you normally want her in bed by 9pm tell her that her new bedtime will be 8pm. Then start her bath time around 7pm so that she's in bed by 8pm. Then I would increase it 10 minutes every night until you're back to her normal bedtime.

As the mother of a dawdler, I had similar issues with a kid who moved slower than molasses and would take on every single distraction that came his way as if it were a personal quest.

When he was the age you are talking about I thought that part of the problem was that he was really learning about time management...but management as in how long 10 minutes really is. As adults, we sort of know that xxx task takes xxx amount of time, but even we over- or under-estimate how long it really takes. I figured if it happens to *me* then I shouldn't assume a 9 year old would automatically know either.

For a while, the egg timer was my best friend. I would tell the boy that he had xxx minutes to complete a task and the consequence would be loss of the same amount of time at bed time. Once that task was complete, he either could play for the remainder of the time, or he lost bedtime depending on how he performed...then we moved on to the next task and do the same thing over again.

I stopped be a complete nagging hag, and he didn't have have to tune out the nagging. He had clear action/consequence. AND he learned how long 10 minutes, 15 minutes (etc.) really is, and how long a task should really take to complete. 

 

I have a kid who is 15 and she's still a dawdler! She'll get out the door on time but is always frantically finishing things up right to the last minute. Very frustrating to watch. She gets up with plenty of time, in my opinion, but spends too much time eating breakfast and dinking around. Then decides she needs a quick shower ten minutes before leaving.

I know it's her responsibility at her age to get it together so I try not to nag. I also tell her that I won't make her a lunch at the last minute because she magically ran out of time. I also feel that it's rude to her ride (her sister) to have this go on every morning. She really doesn't view time like most people and doesn't quite get why we get annoyed! Sometime, though, she'll be late for something important to her and might start to get it.

I would break down that hour by how long things should take. For example:
Bath 8-8:15
drying off and putting on PJ's 8:15-8:20
Drying hair 8:20-8:30
Brushing Teeth 8:30-8:35
Read 8:35-8:45
Use bathroom and get a drink of water 8:45-8:50
Get into bed, ready to sleep 8:50-9:00

Those times are the maximum she can take for those tasks, and if she has time at the end, she can play, watch TV, read, whatever until she gets to 8:50 in this example. If she is 15 minutes late getting into bed, then the next night, everything starts 15 minutes earlier, meaning whatever it is that she is doing - playing, watching TV, computer time - ends 15 mins earlier. Keep backing it up until she is either in bed at 9, or she learns to budget time and has the extra time at the end.

This has nothing to do with your child's ability to pay attention, it is developmentally perfectly normal!

I forgot about the time chart! I used to do this, too. I would call out, "you should be brushing your teeth now," and other such things. I had it down to the minutes--8:03: do this. 8:27: do that. If DH had to get them ready one morning, I would write it all out. It looked ridiculous on paper, but it worked. If they were late for school, I had to physically walk them into the office to sign them in. I didn't want to talk to anyone that early, much less present myself in my grimy glory. So I had a motivation as well!

She sounds like she just wants some slack time. 

My daughter always was the heavy academic kid. She took classes that had lots of homework. When it came time for her chores. which was mostly to empty the garbage, and keep her piles under control when she was 9. she did do her own laundry when she started middle school and helped with the kitchen and bathroom towels in high school.She started helping with the kitchen when she was way to young because she liked to help and always asked if she could so I let her as she got older she did more. she also has been cooking since she was 3. Well, she started helping us cook when she was three. We got tired of her asking if she could help. but when it came time for bed time when she was a kid. I wouldn't give her a time. I would just tell her to go take a bath/shower. She was really good about it if I didn't make a big deal about bedtime. She takes after her dad in the  aspect of telling time. He is always very lax about time. she still struggles with time but she is getting better. 

I always had a bedtime for her when she was younger then 13. and she knew her time but I would tell her every night at 30 minutes before bedtime to go to get ready for bed. She did really good with me doing that. at 9 she was still not sure about time. took her years to figure out how long a minute was in real time. If you say  Dinner is in 5 minutes she wouldn't have a clue to what 5 minutes was. she could tell you on a clock, but she didn't know what it was in real time. I started setting a kitchen timer. so if I told her do this for 5 minutes or you have 20 minutes before you need to go to bed I would set a kitchen timer and when the timer went off she knew it was time to be in bed.  this worked for us for years. I had a kitchen timer just for her. It stayed in her room and when I gave her a time I would give it to her in minutes.  like when she played video games she got a hour a day after home work and chores. she would set her timer for 60 minutes. when the timer went off she put her video game away and turned off the tv and that was that. 

Make life easier for you and her by getting a routine going that you and her are comfortable with. Ask her what would make it easier for her to get her stuff done on time. 

Amanda was always the slow one when it came time for chores.