The Seven Keys to Ensuring ADHD Children Thrive in the Homeschool
Homeschooling children with ADHD is a popular topic and is something I've spoken about recently. I've been making homeschool related TikToks every week and had a huge response to my TikTok about how to ensure your ADHD children thrive in your homeschool. I also did a podcast on this topic for The Charlotte Mason Show. It’ll air in a couple of weeks.
I homeschooled two children with ADHD, which went undiagnosed until high school. I am a thousand percent sure the reason I didn’t know they had ADHD is because of certain elements within the Charlotte Mason model that we implemented from their earliest homeschool days.
A Charlotte Mason Inspired Environment
Those key factors created an environment that allowed my ADHD boys to thrive academically, socially, physically, and emotionally. When they reached high school, they started taking outside classes.
That’s when the truth revealed itself.
But in the early years, the Charlotte Mason model made homeschooling these brilliant, boisterous, bouncy boys a bit of a breeze.
Life wasn’t perfect, of course. They did have ADHD, after all. Sometimes I would come to check on their work only to find a giant hole in the paper or a drawing that covered every math problem they were supposed to have completed. I won’t even mention the number of broken things (including body parts) we experienced.
Not understanding that some of their behavior could be attributed to ADHD, I assumed all boys were unable to sit in a seat for more than ten minutes.
So, what were the main Charlotte Mason principles that enabled us to have a successful homeschool experience with these spontaneous Spartans? There are seven key methods that ensured my children continued to progress in every way through the homeschool years.
Because I’ve written about each of these specific methodologies, I’ve linked to the particular blog posts rather than rehashing them in a new post.
The Seven Keys to Ensuring ADHD Children Thrive in the Homeschool
KEY POINT: This is separate from Nature Study. It’s simply time outside to run, shout, climb, and be a child.
Charlotte Mason tells us,
“In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps the mother’s first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time-- spent for the most part in the fresh air.”
“Play, vigorous healthful play, is, in its turn, fully as important as lessons, as regards both bodily health and brain-power.”
“The claims of the schoolroom should not be allowed to encroach on the child’s right to long hours daily for exercise and investigation.”
KEY POINT: No child, whether he has ADHD or not, can continue to learn and attend to the lesson beyond his attention span. Studies reveal that a child’s attention span is between 5 – 15 minutes. We waste everyone’s valuable time when we require our children to sit and attend beyond their attention span.
Consider what Charlotte Masons says about this topic.
“The lessons are short, seldom more than twenty minutes in length for children under eight.”
“We are able to get through a greater variety of subjects, and through more work in each subject, in a shorter time than is usually allowed, because children taught in this way get the habit of close attention and are carried on by steady interest.”
KEY POINT: Different regions of the brain are activated with different subjects and activities. In order to keep the day running smoothly, the children focused, and not weary the young mind, we must alternate the areas of the brain utilized throughout the day. This keeps our children attentive to their lessons.
Charlotte Mason encourages us to,
“…give the brain of the child variety of work; but the secret of weariness children often show in the home school room is, that no such judicious change of lessons is contrived.”
"Attention is no more than this: the power of giving your mind to what you are about."
Free Time to Pursue Deep Interests
KEY POINT: ADHD children have a high need for times of hyper focus on their current interest or obsession. School should be completed in the morning; the afternoons should be theirs alone. Do not overschedule your children’s afternoons. The stress of a busy week will only lead to bad behavior.
Charlotte Mason wisely shares,
“If the whole afternoon cannot be spared for out-of-door recreation, that is the time for mechanical tasks such as needlework, drawing, practicing.”
“From one to two hours, according to age and class, are given in the afternoons to handicrafts, field-work, drawing, etc.; and the evenings are absolutely free, so that the children have leisure for hobbies, family reading, and the like.”
KEY POINT: When a child has explained to you what he’s learned, he has created neural pathways in the brain that increase comprehension, understanding, and retention. There’s no need to fill out a worksheet, as worksheets do nothing to increase learning. Narration is the primary and most used method of assimilating information we use after a learning period.
Consider these valuable insights Charlotte Mason shares regarding narration.
“Direct questions on the subject-matter of what a child has read are always a mistake. Let him narrate what he has read, or some part of it.”
“As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should 'tell back' after a single reading or hearing: or should write on some part of what they have read.”
“Narrating is not the work of a parrot, but of absorbing into oneself the beautiful thought from the book, making it one's own and then giving it forth again with just that little touch that comes from one's own mind.”
KEY POINT: For the ADHD child, creating notebooking pages will sometimes be a delight, if the child is greatly interested in a subject, and sometimes a hurried affair, if the child is ready to move on to the next activity.
Charlotte Mason says,
“Children who had been reading Julius Caesar (and also, Plutarch's Life), were asked to make a picture of their favourite scene, and the results showed the extraordinary power of visualising which the little people possess. Of course that which they visualise, or imagine clearly, they know; it is a life possession.”
Believing in the Divine Life of the Child
KEY POINT: God created your children exactly as they are and designed them to fulfill His Great purpose for them. He knew they must have the strengths and unique characteristics they have in order to accomplish the plan He has for them. Our children are not broken.
They are gifted.
And we must know and honor that truth, rather than be concerned that they can’t conform to the societal norms of the modern educational system.
Our job is to point our children to the One who created them to be who and what they are and let them know that God is their guide—that His Holy Spirit will lead their interests, their passions, and their obsessions.
Most importantly, we must remind our children that God is for them. That He is ever present to help them overcome every challenge they will face.
As Charlotte Mason tells us,
“We should allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and ‘spiritual’ life of children; but should teach them that the divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their continual helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life."
”For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."
Ephesians 2:10