Hello everyone. I am a homeschooling mom to 3 kiddo's. Jesse my oldest boy is 10 yrs old and is ADD so has a hard time with focusing and sitting still and with motivation (He isn't too fond of anything with the term schoolwork attached to it). Nyssalynn is my only girl. She's 4 yrs old and has speech delays which she sees atherapist through the local public school district for. And then their is Morgan my almost 3 yr old boy who is a bundle of energy and overly aggressive. He's in the process of evaluation for special services through the public school. We started this journey 2 yrs ago when Jesse was in 2cd grade and we were told that it didn't matter that he was getting further and further behind but we needed to worry about it once he got to 5th grade. (what was the school thinking) Anyways, when the school refused to hold him back saying it would be too traumatic we took him out and began homeschooling. Some days I think it would be so much easier if they were all in school but then i remember why we started this which is that we want our kiddo's to get the best education possible and have family values. We live in the middle of Washington State and love it.
Welcome, I had a son that definately had ADD even though we never had him tested. (Why test them if you know you are not going to medicate?) When I realized he was an auditory learner, I began reading his lessons to him. He would ace tests if I read the lesson to him. He would fail if I tried to make him do all of the reading. He could not focus for 5 good minutes and also hated anything "school." Find out his learning style and catch him up anyway you can, and his self esteem and love of learning will probably follow. My son never totally became the independant learner that he might have if we had medicated him. But if I had to do it over, I probably would have made the same choices. We also tried white noise and having him do his consentrated work in a booth that we made from an appliance box to keep out distractions. If you have the $, my sister put her remedial, ADD child (newly medicated) from the 5th grade into Sylvan during the summer and he surpassed his grade level by then end of the summer. Just a thought.
Welcome from Olympia area! I am Sarah & about to homeschool braxton, age 5 with Shaken Baby Syndrome & Autism..I also have a 1 yr old in the house. Sarah
the nearest sylvan center is 1 1/2 hours away I have actually thought about doing that but with it so far away it's more hassle than it's worth. Right now, I have him read the assignment and then him and I discuss it. I'll reread parts to him and that seems to help it click more in his brain. He was on meds for almost 2 yrs and I didn't like the effects but at the same time he was in public school. As soon as we started homeschooling i took him off of meds. he is instead on herbs and vitamins. That actually helps him a lot more than the meds did.
A good source for HS'ing special needs children, especially ADD/ADHD is www.HeadsUpNow.com. Melinda HS's her three children, two of which are ADD (or ADHD...not sure which!). She's full of ideas and has all kinds of little gadgets and doo-dads that make life easier. One of my favorites (expensive, so I don't have one!) is an electronic "hall pass". You know how you send your kid to get something, and a half-hour later, she's still gone and you forgot you sent her because you're now doing math with the other kid, and suddenly you remember and the kid's been off-task for the last hour? Well, when you send the kid, you give them this device that you'll set for five minutes (or whatever), and you also set the BASE UNIT which stays with you. So in five minutes BOTH go off...one to remind the kid she should have completed the task and should be back with you, and one to remind YOU that the kid hasn't returned yet. What's more, the kid CANNOT turn off the noise her timer is making until it's been reconnected to the base unit.
I'm another Jennifer and have been "lurking for a month or so. I'm trying to settle down a PS 5th grader who should not be so wide awake this time of night but the post about the "hall pass" made me jump in the water. I volunteer at my 10yr old dd school, mainly in the library. A number of the teachers send the kids with a timer that is set to X amount of minutes. It is about the size of a pedometer ( like you would use to find the amount of steps you walk in a day) and maybe if you and your child had one set for the same time it would be a good reminder and I imagine alot cheaper. Well, I'll intro myself another time but just a quick note that I am from Eastover, SC which is about 20-30 minutes from I think it is Sherrie. Jennifer in SC
