Moms Homeschooling Kids with Adhd

I have 5 I homeschool, 2 special needs and 1 diagnosed with ADHD. I fully believe the way for many children to be able to reach their full potential is to have that one on one mom/teacher time. My son was all over the place and disruptive in class. Now after nearly 4 years homeschooling he is 1/2 grade ahead, working somewhat at his own pace (i set the daily schedule) and doing soooo much better. I am not a highly educated person, but i know how to read teacher manuals and go back through his books and help him find answers he has overlooked. As a homeschool mom i was able to discipline them more effectively for their behavior as well. I think this has a lot to do with it. If you need more help on homeschooling contact me, i could go on for hours!

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Put quite simply...yes and yes. I have 3 kids ages 11, 9, & 6 who are homeschooled. All 3 have ADD/ADHD. I can't imagine it any other way, at least for us!

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Contact a homeschool group in your area and check with their Moms. I know quite a few who have homeschooled or are homeschoolng. I'll check to see if they would contact you. I don't want to give their numbers out unless and until I speak with them first. You're right - homeschooling is not cheap, but they are usually a generous bunch and share and pool resources. I'll pray you find a happy situation for your son.
D.

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I do, and I personally believe taking him out of "school" was the best decision I've ever made. My son and I school all around the house. We have a different location for just about everything. He has a desk in our downstairs family room where the chalkboard is, but he doesn't spend a lot of time there, just when he has stuff he has to do a lot of writing with and math when I need the board and he needs his manipulatives (at the same time). We do a LOT of movement things like running in place or doing jumping jacks while memorizing or jumping up and down for something and wiggling for something else while doing math, and do different hand movements for the different parts of speech while we're reading sentences. We cuddle up on the couch for reading time, and I'm always holding/touching his hand, arm or leg while reading to him because I've been told that sensory stimulation really helps a lot of ADHD people. I stroke his hair or rub on his arm, squeeze his hand, and he sits GREAT for me the whole entire reading time while I'm reading AND he's reading. It's also, of course, great for bonding. Now, my son's only 6, I don't know how much loving he'll let me do on him when he's 11, but it's working for us now.

Good Luck with your decision.

K.
SAHM of 4 (6, 5, 3, & 9mths)

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A., I homeschooled our granddaughter, cerebral palsy, ADHD, no reading or math skills, and it was so much better, and she learned. Find a curriculm guide to evaluate where he is, and start from there. Use your imagination and every resource you can find. Make a cake or birdhouse and teach him measuring skills. Go to the zoo and teach him science. Grow a garden, paint a room, read together, make a game of finding errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling in the newspaper, etc. Besides the book work, these teach so much. Let him read to you-- a recipe, a book, the newspaper, a magazine article. Find games and tutoring programs on the 'net to use. Buy what you need to supplement the other things at Radio Shack. You can do this and do it well if you plan out what he needs. L. L

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Good luck and bless you. A child with ADHD is a child who will never be able to live in the "lockstep" world of public school. I have home schooled. It is not easy. i have a son with ADD and he is not easy. Make time for yourself DAILY. Keep a schedule and be prepared to suffer fools. When your son graduates college, you will say it was worth it. Just like many more of us have.

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A. B.
I was a special needs teacher, and I have a granddaughter who has ADHD. My granddaughter was about 10 when her parents had her tested. Sure enough she is. It was affecting her ability to read and write.
Before I get too far with that train of thought, let me explain how things work in schools. If a child isn't identified and placed under the umbrella of Special Education, he or she will have no protection from the D's and F's coming their way. If that child is under the Speical Education umbrella, allowances will be made to accommodate their needs. Tutoring, a little extra help, less spelling words, etc.
What they are doing for my granddaughter is modified assignments, being able to use a computer to write her assignments, with spell check, & grammar check. She was also prescribed medication. When she was tested she was 2 years behind in reading, now she is maybe 6 months behind. Being a girl, she can be moody, and that has changed, too. When she doesn't take her meds, she is a total witch to her little sister (as she was always before), but when she takes her meds, she does great. She still has her personality, but she is able to concentrate on what is important, whether it is play or school.
It has been my experience with home schooled children, that they are usually behind publicly schooled children the same age. I know all parents mean well, but unless you are especially talented at handling your children 24-7, it can really be trying on you. You have to be the Mommy, the Teacher, the Cook, and the chauffeur; not to mention wife.

Just something for you to think about. :o)
B. M.

A.,

You are smart to ask for advice about ADHD. Plese do not believe all of the lies that the media and random internet sources tells us about ADD. (90% of all internet sites that are negative about medication are produced by the Church of Scientology).

Unfortunately I believed all of what people told me without getting the true scientific data. I am ADD/ADHD. Thankfully someone got through to me, I started taking medication and I can't believe the difference. It is truly great to know how "real" people think.

The first thing that you will need to know is that people who don't have ADD can have no clue about how it feels to be ADD/ADDHD. They think that you can just eat better nutritionally, or discipline better, or "snap out of it", or some other home remedy.

What people don't understand and I didn't either, is that ADD is a chemical imbalance at the synaptic level in the brain and it is genetic. It is not caused by any outside sources.

An ADD person's brain cycles dopamine and norepinephrine too fast at the synapse. This causes inattention, distractibility, unexplained out-bursts or impulsivity, which has outcomes, that are below average scholastically (but not always), socially shunned, and generally viewed as having a lower intelligence than their peers. However, the vast majority of ADD people have higher IQ's than their peers. By using proper medicine, they can attain their IQ quotient. Without medicine, they are often viewed as an inconvenience.

I hope that you decide to have him "tested" for ADD/ADHD. Your pediatrician can give you the forms for you, your spouse, and his teacher to fill out. You will also want to know that not every pediatrician really understands ADD, so not all of them will give you good advice or start your child out on the right medication.

This past fall, my daughter (who has tested with a 'gifted' IQ) went through the testing with Dr. Lillian Israel (great Dr.!). Dr. Israel did the right thing in starting my daughter on Concerta (she had to learn to swallow pills and I can help you with this too :-)).

Concerta is the medication that the Harvard Researchers on ADD always reccommend as the first medicine to try. It is basically time released Ritalin. Ritalin is a drug that has been used since the 1930's so we know that it is safe to use.

The only other drug that has been proven to work on ADD has an amphetamine base, which increases side effects and can be addictive.

We found that Concerta has little to no side effects and is totally non addictive.

For my daughter, we started her on a low dose and then increased it until we found the level that helped her the best. We even learned that her dosages would increase through the first year or 2 as her body adjusts to metabolizing it.

The results have been amazing for my daughter! She is SO proud of herself! She is making 100's on tests! She can spell when she had a hard time before. She now has the patience to sound words out. She isn't a zombie, if anything; she is a better daughter because she doesn't talk incessantly about nothing in particular just to be talking.

I hope this helps,
K. B.

I know this is an old post... but I was just curious as to your decision to homeschool or not?

My husband had/has ADHD and although he was on medication, his teachers put him in LD classes b/c they couldn't/didn't know how to deal and/or control him. I think this was a completely wrong decision on their parts, but the past is the past.

I completely disagree with the comment from the school teacher about homeschool being an act of "depriving" the children from the things in the world. Maybe in the olden days where most homeschool kids were considered to not be able to function in society. But these days, there are wonderful homeschool groups that you can get yourself and your child involved in. I'm not saying that homeschool is the only right way, but for some kids it is definatly the best choice.

I hope whatever decision you did make worked out wonderful for y'all!!

I can speak from this on the other end: My parents had 6 kids, and homeschooled them all because of me. I was the oldest and ADHD. It turns out that my brother(#3) and sister(#4) were both ADHD as well, and homeschooling was the best thing that could have happened to us. Just make sure that you get plugged into a local homeschooling group for support and a social life! LOL
I loved being homeschooled, and am now homeschooling my kids. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Yes, we homeschool an adhd kid. It can be difficult, but the love is there that is missing in traditional school. We keep it from being to much like the school room though we do DEAR (drop everything and read) we also have pajama day (like she did in her class). We make sure that after every three subjects or there abouts that she gets time to run and play. we do her science mostly hands on and her language is on a wipe board or orally most of the time. I do have her write some from time to time but not much. You will do well, just do not be afraid to change how you teach until you find something he and you are comfortable with. K.

A. i do not think it is a good idea to homeschool your child unless he is in danger. as a public school teacher, i deal with adhd children everyday. i feel that children learn soooooo much about social behavior from going to school, whether it be public or private. i do think they can get this from other places, but there are so many experiences (both positive and negative) that you are denying your child by home schooling him. how is keeping him home fixing the adhd problem? i don't understand...if anything i would think it is making it worse, maybe down the road, when he does interact with other children.

My youngest boy got drums at age 10. I just let him have at it, playing however he wanted. It is a way to get the fidgets out! If you can't afford a full kit, try various hand percussion, especially something like a djembe (African goblet-shaped wooden drum.) He was homeschooled during those years, so I took him to my college jazz band rehearsals and he became the drummer's assistant, helping move things for performances, picking up dropped sticks, and most of all, observing the discipline involved in playing music in a large group.

Oh-- and a gentle old Arabian horse, too, starting at age 8. Now he's just about grown and an apprentice in an Arabian show barn!

I homeschooled my son who does not have ADD. But I think if you check with your local homeschooling support group you will find a world of help. As far as the money issues the support group will have use books for sale, also the net has wonderful site for this too. You will also found that most firms that have give aways for regular school teachers will also give them to homeschooling moms. Hope this helps some.

I'm a former classroom teacher and I think that this is probably a great idea. There are so many distractions for any child at school but it's especially hard for one with attention problems. I know that many people advocate the use of drugs but in my experience, it sometimes only makes the child tolerable to other people. Is that best for the child? My neice took nearly every ADHD drug available and none of them worked without making her a zombie or making her lose weight. They took her off of them. She is still fidgety at school but her teacher says she'd rather have her like she is rather than drugged. If you are homeschooling, make sure you associate with a good homeschooling group in your area. Some churches sponsor them. By hooking up with a group, you can make sure he's around other children his age. Even though you are taking care of him academically, he still needs social growth! The most important thing you can do is to make sure you are going by the state course of study so that you are not skipping anything. Make sure your child is mastering (if he's on grade level) each concept before you move on to the next. READ, READ, READ. Check frequently for fluency to make sure he's reading on grade level. If at anytime you decide to put him back into a regular classroom setting, he'll be up to par with his peers...maybe ahead! Good luck!

I cannot personally speak on this subject BUT I have a very close friend who struggled with this same issue (both in public and private schools). She has been home schooling now for about 3 years and they have made amazing progress. It is the best things she could have done for her son. It's hard work I understand but well worth it for your child. They also participate in social events, etc. with other kids who are home schooled (in order to fulfill the social aspect of his education). I wish you the best of luck.

I would highly recommend that you pull all of your children out of school and homeschool. I tried the traditional school with a highly intellegent 5 year old. With my response from a traditional school they don't have the resources to give each child that individual attention they need to learn and succeed in life. There are alot of options to homeschool and you can pick the best route for each child. Best of luck with the choice that you make.

A.
My nephew has ADHD and he goes to public school and has done very well in his classes he is 13 so to be 14 in July and he has learned to handle his ADHA very well he also takes medicine that help him and it does work. I do not think that trying to homeschool him would help him at all it just isolates him and he will not be able to learn to control himself so that he can learn.

I feel your pain. My 11 year old son has ADHD. He does attend the local public school where I am a teacher. There are programs available to you through the school. I suggest that you research your local programs. If you as a parent request your school to test your child they have to and provide your child with services. If they say he doesn't qualify for special services, say doesn't he fall under other health impaired due to his medical diagnosis of ADHD. My son qualifies under this guideline. Once the testing and qualifying are taken care of your son will have an IEP (individual education program) put in place. This can be anything from a few classroom modifications or number of hours in a resource room (which has few students and distractions). Teachers at your public school are trained to educate ADHD children. My son is succeeding due to his teachers understanding and dedication.

You are right. Most school teachers can't do him justice, because he needs one on one instruction, and they have a classroom of students to teach. He may have already been labeled a "problem kid" and he will think himself stupid. Go to the Home School Legal Defense
Association's website. They have a link with advice for people in your situation.

I homeschool 2 of my kids because of ADHD in one and neurological troubles in the other. They are both from a mother who was using drugs and alcohol. I find it is the only way to go. They were in resource in school which just lowered the expectations for the kids. My daughters grew up thinking that they could only do part of a job. I have high expectations for them at homeschool and they rise to it. My other daughter is attending high school this year in public school, and she tells me that it is much easier than homeschool was. Don't let your son grow up thinking that he does not have to do his best. Homeschool is a great way to do this. To my way of thinking and that of the psychologist, it is the only way. After all, who knows your son better than you do? Email me if you want ideas or help to get started.
S. R

Lots of parents homeschool kids with ADHD or special needs. Contact HSLDA for more suppport. http://www.hslda.org/