Inside Our Homeschool… Where Focusing is a Challenge

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This post is part of a series of homeschool snapshots.  No two families are alike so why should your homeschool.  Head to the Event Page to read the rest of the stories and find your tribe.

Our homeschool has always been full of energy and active kids who like to listen to a story for a minute and then are off to do something else.  It was hard to keep up.  It took awhile to learn that part of the quick pace was that my kids had trouble focusing on their school work.  We have learned to adapt, and our normal includes homeschooling with focus challenges.  

Because I have to hold their attention, we stick to the basics and create active learning opportunities.  We don’t do worksheets.  We do other activities to check their understanding and comprehension of activities.  Discussion is a big part of our learning and it can take a few jumps and we are on a completely different topic and that is ok!  Active learning at our house means they are fully engaged in the activity which usually includes discussion among moving kids.  

I’ve had to rediscover what it looks like to learn and remind myself often that learning at home doesn’t have to look like it does in the classroom.  We have found a few hacks along the way that have made big differences in our homeschool.  

Wiggles don’t mean not listening

Sitting still is not required for kids to listen and learn.  And for kids who have trouble focusing it can actually hinder their ability to listen, because they are focused on working hard to sit still and not on listening to the new information being presented.  

Letting kids move or fidget while you read a book or teach something actually helps them listen.  Sometimes this looks like building with blocks on the floor or laying upside down on the couch too.  I don’t like to use LEGOs during this time because they can be noisy and noisy toys distract others, but there are lots of other good options. 

Pattern Blocks, drawing, rice bins, small figures or kinetic sand all help different kids at our house.  They can’t play together because again that puts their focus on something other than listening, but otherwise anything goes!  

We will stop and discuss and I’ll ask them to explain back to me what I read to know they are listening and paying attention.  Let them wiggle, and you may find that they listen better.  

Using Timers 

We love timers.  Our favorite is the Time Timer in the small size.  We don’t use them to time our work time but we use them to time our brain breaks and our screen time.  Having a timer during an assignment adds stress to our homeschool so we work in task blocks, timing our break when we finish a subject so we don’t forget to come back to the school work. Usually a 5-minute timer is all they need to refocus then it is on to the next task.  

Summer reading programs that reward minutes read, are actually the worst at our house.  One kid even avoided reading one summer because he didn’t want to set a timer to record his minutes. The pressure felt like sucked the fun out of reading for him.

We use a Google Routine to start our school day at a set time each morning: that way they can’t be mad at mom that their play was interrupted because mom didn’t tell them to stop, Google did.  We have Google play a song each morning and by the end of the song we are all in the right place and ready to start.  It takes a lot of frustration out of the equation for us. 

“Go Jump”

When kids are literally bouncing off the walls I say, “Go Jump.” They take a trampoline break and get the big wiggles out in the backyard.  Kids with sensory processing disorder often need extra input to their joints to sit still.  Jumping helps with this.  We have both indoor and outdoor trampolines which are used regularly.  The indoor one gets the most use in the winter when cold and snow makes it difficult to jump outside.  

Having kids with sensory challenges, we are more aware of their needs and ways they can give their bodies the stimulation they need to relax and allow them to learn at their best.  Burying hands in a bin of rice or beans can feel really good as we discovered this summer at the fair.  It is a different kind of rice bin play but no less important than what a preschooler needs.  

Medication as a Tool

We know from working with a variety of professionals that homeschooling with focus challenges part of our life are rooted in ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder.  It has been beneficial for us to have  medications as part of our toolbox for helping our kids focus on their school work and other activities. 

It was several years after we were told one child had ADHD before we tried medication for them.  They asked me one day, “Why am I so dumb?”  They knew they couldn’t stay focused and needed extra reminders which were making both of us frustrated and we were already using all the other tools I have mentioned. 

We worked with our doctor to explore how medication might help them focus and it was a game changer.  They are able to do the things they want and feel successful.  It’s one more tool we use to help our kids be successful: we don’t rely on it exclusively, but it’s also tremendously beneficial when used correctly.  

Focus Skills for Life

In our homeschool we have very open conversations about each person’s struggles and when they can’t focus and we problem solve to help them find the strategy that will work for that day.  We are helping them build their own personal toolbox of strategies to help themselves do what they need to do to be successful at school work and later life!  

This post is part of a series of homeschool snapshots.  No two families are alike so why should your homeschool.  Head to the Event Page to read the rest of the stories and find your tribe.