Good morning everyone! Thanks for stopping by to see us today! This week we’ll be starting off a new series called “Homeschooling with ADHD.”
Tigger was diagnosed with ADHD a few months back and we’ve made the decision (so far) to continue on without medication. Interestingly, her doctor actually said that the fact that we’re homeschoolers works in her favor. Since we don’t require her to sit still for several hours per day and we work with her on an individual basis, we may not need to use medication at all. Yet another win for homeschooling!
Now, this is not to say that we won’t ever consider medication. I know some homeschoolers who have decided to use medication to manage their children’s ADHD and I am in no way judging their decision. We may come to the same decision ourselves one day. However, I did want to share a few of the ADHD homeschooling tips that we’ve both read and tried so that we can adjust our teaching to work along with the way her mind operates.
Here’s what we’ll be discussing for the next five Mondays during the series:
- Managing Expectations
- Adapting as a Teacher
- Preparing Kids to Learn
- Making Lifestyle Changes
- Considering the Other Kids
Are any of you homeschooling children with ADHD? Do you have ADHD yourself? We’d love to hear your suggestions and experiences! We need all the support and encouragement we can get!
Keep on learning!
I’m not sure if my son technically has ADHD, because I’d prefer to not have him tested. However, he definitely has focus issues. We’ve found that when he starts loosing focus and can’t concentrate, if he runs around the room for a good 5-10 minutes, he can then focus again for a short period of time.
We do that too. In fact, we’ll be mentioning this suggestion in one of our upcoming posts. I think lack of focus in itself does not signal ADHD, but it’s extremely common in kids. I even struggle with that myself now that I spend so much with technology.
Great series! Thanks for doing it.
Thanks for visiting! 🙂
I have graduated 2 one ADHHHHHHHD and one ADD. They didn’t always homeschool and we medicated. If I could do it over I would ALWAYS homeschool and not medicate 🙂
Lol. That’s a great rule of thumb. 🙂
Most people thought my youngest and oldest son’s had symtoms of ADD or ADHD but as for my oldest son, he basically out grew his distractived behavior. My youngest son I bought home to homeschool. When I did, I realized, he doesn’t have ADD or ADHD after working with our doctor. Basically after 30 days of homeschool the kid sits still for 2 of his 40min long DVD classes. Then does his work. I give him hop around time (one of the DVD teachers actually has the students stand up and move during learning). I created a Calm Down list for him and it’s also worked wonders. Now at over 30 days in – he’s amazingly different than the student that was labled in the public school system.
That’s an interesting experience. I’ve noticed that Tigger has slowly grown into becoming more distracted, but (like your son) she’s capable of sitting down for a DVD as well. If she was in public school, I have no doubt that she would have been prescribed medication by now. But since we’re homeschooling, the doctor just encouraged us to keep making adjustments for her and tailoring the instruction to her specific needs. It really does work. 🙂
Hi, I am 3 months into homeschooling my 3 kiddos ages 5,7 and 8. Our oldest has ADHD symptoms (we have not had him formally diagnosed). I am now gathering information to help me be a better homeschool mom to him, so we don’t have crying during math 😉 I am so thankful for your blog and your series, it really has helped a lot. Keep up the great work!
You’re so welcome! I really think that some of the techniques for ADHD are helpful for young kids in general, since they seem to have short attention spans. Our goal as homeschoolers is to help them enjoy learning and I’m all for anything that makes that possible. 🙂
Hi, thanks for posting…….my 5yr old has been diagnosed recently, she is in a private school and it is not working out. Her teacher is not working with her and just wants to know when she will be put on medication (meds is an absolute last resort). We had decided at the first of the year we will home school her…..right now I’m gathering resources, I’m excited to get to do this because I believe that it will benefit her greatly, but on the other hand I’m nervous, so glad I came across your blog!
Hi! Thanks for visiting! We’re not medicating here either, because the potential side effects frightened us so much. Honestly, she has times when she’s calm and attentive and then there are times when she’s super active and excited. When those times come up, we try to either adjust the schooling to suit her or we take an activity break to let her shake out the wigglies. We’re making it along okay so far! 🙂
I’ve been homeschooling my now 12 year old son for a year and a half. He was diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarten and he does take medication. However, when we are home I don’t feel it necessary to medicate. One thing I have found, and which may explain why the little ones can stay focused on their DVDs, is that when they are interested in the subject or the medium, they can “hyper-focus”. So….I am changing our homeschool curriculum to concentrate on what puts my son in his “zone”. As homeschoolers we have that freedom. God bless you all for your dedication. This is not an easy job but one I would not trade for anything!
Thanks so much for visiting and sharing your story! I absolutely agree about hyper-focus. My husband and I both have a tendency to do that as well, so we can definitely relate. It’s wonderful to be able to adjust our curriculum to our kids’ needs!