THOUGHTS
I Have to Move to Learn
My daughter was the catalyst for my educated yet experimental approach to our movement-based, ADHD-accomodating homeschooling education.
I Have to Move to Learn!
My daughter was the catalyst for my educated yet experimental approach to our movement-based, ADHD-accommodating homeschooling education.
My daughter wiggles… She has not stopped moving since I felt her move within me. In her sleep, while awake, learning or observing — she continually fiddled with something– her hair, a button, a scrap of paper.
And her feet — even while sleeping, I watched her tiny toes wiggle in her dreams.
Because of my “energetic” child, I tailored much of her early homeschooling education around movement.
If there was a way to incorporate kinesthetic activities into her lessons, she retained the information much better! If there was a way to put the knowledge into a song or interpretive dance — she dove headfirst — or she tolerated my crazy ideas.
Likely, it was a combination of equal parts of movement and silliness that made our venture a success. My daughter thrived as an elementary student with my zany ideas, which sometimes made her annoyed.
That’s what moms do — even moms with ADHD who choose to homeschool — we desperately want our children to comprehend the lessons and go to drastic measures to help them grasp concepts. We mothers with ADHD remember school, and usually not fondly.
She was my inspiration. My goal was to connect with her.
My goal? For my daughter to learn, she had to jump on the learning bandwagon with me. There had to be a clear purpose (and benefit). Grabbing her attention and captivating her within the first three minutes of my lesson became my aim.
I used my learning “hooks” to create questions that my daughter was obsessed with discovering. With a few inexpensive tools, she thrived. Once I inspired curiosity, she often left me in the dust, studying and learning if the subject piqued her interest from the start.
Lessons began with a story, a game, or a question to get her wheels turning. When the task was over, we had attempted to explore every question concerning the subject.
We then went in search of another related topic. I tried to incorporate literature and history by using historical fiction or biographies of famous historical figures to study various historical eras.
We emerged from our “rabbit trails” of quirky learning, feeling refreshed, better educated, and ready to tackle the next topic.
Of course, I did not ignore all the unpleasant lessons my ADHD daughter needed to learn. Instead, I figured out how to motivate my daughter educationally.
“It takes one to know one” -my mom and a billion playground bullies were correct.
People with ADHD have difficulty with executive function. We cannot go from point A to point B performing a task without many steps. If the task has too many steps, ADHDers shut down.
To keep her from reaching frustration level and disengaging with my lesson– I made many changes. I worked to make our lessons less overwhelming by shortening lessons, providing small toys for fidgeting, including hand held dry erase boards into teaching time, and even cutting her worksheets into fourths and hidden around the house to find. It kept things interesting for both of us!
We found balance most days — a healthy dose of interest-led learning combining required reading, writing, and arithmetic lessons. Even when learning “boring subjects,” we utilized movement to increase learning and retain our new facts.
My goal in home educating was to bypass the difficulties experienced by ADHD-diagnosed children and keep my daughter engaged.
Learning should be challenging but not frustrating. Keeping a child at the frustration level is cruel and anxiety-provoking.
I made small accommodations for my daughter, turning my mindset of ‘classroom at home’ on its head. When I embraced that we were at HOME learning, I relaxed my expectations and adapted without compromising her college-prep education.
Traditional methods of teaching only serve the majority of students. For many students, this is perfect.
But for the students that are neurodiverse? Many educators expect to fit these round pegs into square holes.
There are exceptions to this sweeping generalization. Many fabulous educators in the educational system today go the extra mile for students who don’t quite qualify for additional help in the classroom.
However, there is no guarantee your child would be assigned a spectacular teacher. Learning accommodations are difficult to obtain, especially for girls with ADHD.
Simply put, these children behave well and do not cause enough classroom problems to need extra attention.
But teachers are human. They have families, responsibilities other than just their careers. Dedicating individual time to tailoring learning to meet the needs of an entire classroom is virtually impossible.
The little things matter.
I am an introverted ADHD mom who likes order and control. Homeschooling my daughter with diagnosed ADHD allowed me to uncover her unique learning style.
With that knowledge, I could harness how she best-retained information.
The year I tried to say “yes” more than I said “no” piqued my daughter’s exuberant curiosity. She wanted to learn without anyone “crushing her creativity.”
While unintentional, I discovered I had crushed her creativity for the sake of order many times.
There were three kids under the age of five when I was 27. I was in survival mode for several years of her education. I did my best to loosen up to meet my daughter’s educational needs.
I allowed her some autonomy over her education, even as a young child.
You have created a lifelong learner if you capture a child’s attention.
Within parameters, I allowed her to complete independent work wherever she wanted, provided she stayed on task. There were days spent at the table when daydreaming became inactivity or a distraction.
However, those days were not frequent because I changed my approach. This small amount of freedom I gave her — control of how she wanted to learn — challenged her and kept her motivated and on task.
She could often be found reading in a fort made of my living room curtains. Other days, swinging (sometimes upside down) while reading was her choice.
Traditional learning environments cannot cater to this type of education– it would be total anarchy in the classroom.
Learning with my daughter was an adventure. I knew that the more I allowed her to lead the way, the more she wanted to know.
I discovered she preferred to stand rather than sit doing independent table work. If handwriting were part of the assignment, I would insist she use a table or desk or it would take forever.
Did she have to stay seated? Absolutely not.
At least not when she was using the motion of standing helped her concentrate on the task on the table. Studies show that big corporations have found “sit to stand” work desks benefit their employees significantly.
She was allowed to dance, stand, or sit at the table when doing independent work.
When the wiggles were too bad, I opened the front door and pointed to the stop sign at the end of our little cul-de-sac.
My daughter knew running to touch the stop sign, and then back home gave her the activity she needed, cleared her mind, and equally important — gave me a tiny break from her ‘full-body learning style”.
After her run, she returned a bit sweaty but calmer and ready to learn.
Truly, incorporating movement into her education, allowed my daughter to succeed. She is now in college and thriving- in an art school perfectly suited for her.
