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Homeschooling the ADHD Child
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Homeschooling an ADHD child can be a real challenge. Here are some of the issues we deal with regularly in our home:
Homeschooling an ADHD child will present you with a unique set of challenges. Because of the existence of learning disabilities in a large percentage of ADHD children, the parent's teaching style must match learning styles of these children as much as possible. Most ADHD children are just not good classroom learners, so attempting to recreate a classroom at home will not benefit the child, or you as the homeschooling parent. Allowing your child to read standing on his head or in the frog position might work better than sitting at a desk or kitchen table. Some children do better reciting math facts while jumping on a mini-trampoline or hopping around the room. Allow your child to try different learning environments. The biggest challenge for parents who were classroom learners themselves is giving up the classroom paradigm. Unit Studies and Hands-On Activities are a great choice for at least one or two of the child's subjects. We choose a topic, such as Inventors, and create a study based on this topic with activities in History, Science, Creative Writing, Vocabulary, Spelling, and sometimes Math. It is possible that your ADD/ADHD child is a Kinesthetic Learner or Gifted Some children, especially the gifted ADD/ADHD child, may learn best with a modified form of unschooling. Not all ADD/ADHD children are kinesthetic learners, however. Be sure to look into the many different learning styles and determine which best fits your child. Then gear your choice of teaching styles and materials based on your child's learning style. In 2003, we began middle school and began to incorporate Christian Classical Education ideas into our homeschool. As expected, some ideas worked well and others did not. My children unanimously love Latin. The reading and summarizing did not work well for several of my children. I did used Writing Strands and Writing Trails (from LOGOS) with success with two of my children. We did a lot of work orally, discussed most of the reading, and definitely did much less written work than most Classical homeschoolers would do. We learned to make accommodations for each child's challenges: presenting work orally, using a computer instead of hand writing out exercises, computer curriculum such as Switched on Schoolhouse. After the Christmas holidays, I realized that I was not going to make it as things were going. I was tired, had little focus and could not direct my children successfully. On the ADD Homeschool List, another creative list member shared what they were doing this year while she regrouped: Learning at Home, a modified child-directed method. I decided at the beginning of February 2004 that we were going to use this system for at least 4 weeks while I recover from the mental and physical exhaustion that has overcome me. Learning how to take a break from the routine can bring refreshing not only to the homeschooling parent, but to the children as well. Here are some additional links for homeschooling the ADD/ADHD child:
Support Groups:
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