Hugs to ya mom23! I liked the ideas shared by holdinon already, so that may be good to try. I am wondering - would you say it is just mainly math? I really do think that some dc just need more direction and more constant monitoring. For math, I can't set the timer and walk away for one of my dc either. We just do my teaching part (the textbook) together, and then for his part (the workbook), I stay seated next to him, often working with my youngest ds on something like a puzzle or some coloring, and keep checking on his math work as he goes. If he is staring at his math paper and not making progress with a problem, I immediately talk through it with him. I find the same to be true with grammar with him. I do my teaching parts, and whatever I assigned him to do independently, I sit near him and work with my youngest again on something like his LHTH art project, and anytime I see pausing and no progress with the grammar, I help move him along.mom23 wrote:Does anyone have problems with a dc who will just ignore the timer-daydreaming or doodling their time away until it goes off and they only have 2 math problems done with a whole margin filled with artwork, and lots of minutes spent in whining that they cannot do it? It's really not too hard-I kept backing her up to "easier" stuff as this year started to hopefully find something that she could get her feet under her and begin to move forward. She's now a 4th grader doing 2nd grade level math-the same stuff that she flew through at the beginning of last year. My husband has said not to move her back anymore. He's given her plenty of "principal" talks lately, and she's still giving me fits. We finally took the rest of this week off from schoolwork because we were all so burned out and frustrated with eachother, but now I'm dreading Monday...Any thoughts?
Your dd sounds creative, as she likes to doodle and draw. My ds that is more distracted is this way as well. This need to draw and create is being filled beautifully for him with PHFHG "Draw and Write Through History", the notebooking assignments, and many of the history projects. He even loves drawing for the vocabulary cards, the timeline, and his procedures of his science labs. Maybe your dd can begin to look at times such as these in her day as her time to be creative and to draw? Sometimes as long as my dc know there are plans within the day that they will be coming to that will be "their thing" they especially love to do, they are content not to try to do "their thing" during the rest of the day when they shouldn't be doing it.
(And if not, then discipline kicks in). 
I am also wondering if she is a child that needs some breaks in her day? My oldest wants no breaks - but I still think it's healthy for him to have 1 break in the middle of his school day, and I like him to play with his youngest brother, so he still has one. My middle ds used to need more breaks. He did better actually starting his day by playing, and then starting school later. He then had another lengthy break in the middle, and one more before he was totally done. This used to work well for him. This year he has fewer breaks and is doing fine. Maybe it would help to give dd some blocks of work time, and some blocks of free time? You could try alternating work time and free time and see how that goes.
If the doodling is really a concern and happens often, perhaps you could just plan for three 15 min. breaks at some point in her day, and when you see her doodling instead of doing her math, you could say, "I see you are doodling, so we'll have you take 1 of your 3 fifteen minute breaks right now. I'll set the timer, and you can doodle here for 15 minutes, then we'll resume math."
One other thing I wondered about was whether she is a morning person or not? This is a good thing to figure out about dc I am finding. My youngest ds was set to do his phonics with me last thing of the day. Big mistake. Poor little guy was shot, and phonics was too.
I just moved him to doing it first thing in the day with me, and it's improved his phonics incredibly. The funny thing is last year he absolutely needed to PLAY first in his day. Trying to do his school with him first thing last year did not work, and I remembered needing to move his school later in the day last year, which is why I started THIS year with it later in the day. Who knew the difference a year might make?!? So, I guess what I am trying to say is that what worked last year might not work this year. I think I'd try out a few things, reflect on what you find out, and then make a few changes. I also think I'd resign myself to working right by dd's side for awhile, and training, training, training. Adding some specific rewards and consequences may be good to do too. I have had to do this, and it works better if I figured out what I'd do for a consequence or reward BEFORE we're in the middle of it. My temper can flare otherwise, and I can throw out consequences we both know I won't enforce.
I hope something here helps, but keep on persevering. I know you personally, having had the pleasure of meeting you face to face at a book fair, and I am 100% confident in your abilities to continue to work through this, love your child through it, and get to the bottom of it. You are such a capable young lady - full of encouragement and joy for the Lord - she'll come around, she's in good company. In Christ,
Julie
Unfortunately training takes that time and focus, huh?! 
Makes me remember to check progress too. I have one of those cooking timers with three timers on it and it is very handy.