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Kath's Korner Homeschooling ADD/ADHD Children
For anyone who hasn't thought of homeschooling their ADHD child the idea of doing so seems absolutely crazy. It was just a couple of years ago that I thought this. I can remember when my son was going out the door to school, I would sigh with relief, the peace and quiet, I would sit down with a hot drink and all my muscles would just relax.......and then later the worrying. Was he doing what the teacher said? Was he being bullied again? And why wasn't he learning? Homeschooling is much less stressful! The mental giant leap seems to be not so much taking responsiblity for teaching your own child but more the thought of being around them 24hours a day! How is it possible to do it without going crazy? How did I do it? Well I started looking into homeschooling because the school situation was just becoming impossible for Jonathon. He was miserable, lonely, and had no love of learning. It was stressful for me as well, keeping in touch with the teacher almost daily to know what was going on, that was if the other school kids hadn't already told me at the gate! I spent a couple of months just researching homeschooling, looking at the pratical side of things. I met other homeschoolers who willingly gave advice. (Unfortunately at the time I knew of no other homeschoolers with ADHD children. There are increasing numbers of ADHD children being homeschooled now as many parents are becoming aware of the benefits of doing so.) The best advice given was when we left the school situation we should have time to 'detox' from the school way of thinking. We did this over about six weeks. During this time we just relax, read lots of books, and most importantly started dealing with attitudes. Because he was under my rules all the time he had very consistent discipling and that made a major improvement to his behaviour. Because we didn't leap into learning at home and we just relaxed I found I wasn't going crazy. And when his behaviour improved I found myself starting to enjoy having him around more. I found that when we did start the learning we needed to make some adjustments for his ADHD. For example, he had poor motor control in his writing hand, making his handwriting very messy. We worked on improving his motor control with an occupational therapist and instead of writing down his answers for his work, I let him tell me the answers when ever possible. He also pratices some copywork each day. I hope to include in this section soon some tips for homeschooling in each subject. If you are homeschooling your ADHD child please send in your tips! My email box is down the bottom of the page.
Here are some links to others who are homeschooling their ADHD child: Homeschool Educator of ADHD Child - Shares Teaching Tips. At last some pratical advice. Written by Carol who homeschools her ADHD son. Even more important - the tips work! Postively ADD - Parenting and Unschooling A Few Lessons Learnt - About Teaching Students who have ADHD. From a teachers perspective but much is applicable to homeschooling.
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