Summer Survival Strategies

School is almost out for most children and parents will soon be faced with full-time children (for those whose children go to school). For homeschoolers, summer can be a welcome respite from the grinding school schedule. Either way, our ADHD children need some kind of structure and routine to keep them from getting out of sorts. Boredom is one of the ADHD child's worst enemies!

Daily Routine

Continue with daily rituals and routine. Free Daily Routine charts are available for printing out and downloading.

• Wake up the same time every day
• Eat regularly scheduled meals with lots of healthy snacks
• Limit TV, video games and computer time
• Encourage outside activities
• Observe a regular, early bedtime each night

Family Brainstorming:

Have a family meeting; with one parent or older child as Secretary (responsible for recording what was said during the meeting) ask each child to tell you what they would like to do during the summer. Do not comment on what is said, just write it down. After everyone has shared their ideas, have the family rate each idea using a scale of 1 (being least interesting) to 5 (most interesting) from each member. Average the ratings for a final rating for each idea (math practice). Those with the highest ratings go on a final list. Endeavor to do one of these activities/ideas each week.

Sports:

• Swim team: Your children will have to be at the pool at the same time each day, burn off some of that excess energy and give them a sense of accomplishment as they hone their swimming skills.
• Soccer: Let your children run off all that energy. Soccer is the most active of the team sports.
• Track and Field: Again, the children can run off that energy, learn how to be part of a team and learn new skills.

Reading Program:

• Summer Reading Challenge: free summer reading program to print out and challenge your children to keep reading while school is out.
• Public library: sign your children up with your local public library's summer reading program
• Bookstores: Barnes Noble and Borders both have summer reading programs
• Make up your own: encourage your children to reach a reading goal each week and reward them immediately with a small prize or a fun field trip. Have an Award Ceremony at the end of summer with a pizza or pool party.
• Tape Recorder: To encourage reluctant readers, allow your children to read into a tape recorder, teaching them to enunciate and show emotion as they read. Teach them to read punctuation: short pause at a comma, longer pause at a period, etc.
• Christian fiction: Order some good age-appropriate Christian fiction from Focus on the Family, Orion's Gate, or Christian Book Distributors.

Nature Exploration:

• Nature Notebook: present a spiral-bound notebook and set of colored pencils to your child encouraging him to draw the wonderful creations of Almighty God. Encourage him to write a description of what he sees as well.
• Nature Hike: once a week, take your child to a different city, county or state park to explore local habitats. Have your child bring their Nature Notebook and record what they see. Give each child a disposable camera. Teach them to quietly walk along, listening for the sounds of nature. If your child has a tape recorder, have them record bird calls or other sounds they hear. Introduce your child to the park ranger and ask the ranger to explain the rules of park usage including how to treat the wildlife, flora and fauna.
• Creation Science: teach your child on which day of Creation each aspect of nature was created. You can study the field of science that is related to that day for one week:
  1. Day 1: light and energy
  2. Day 2: meteorology (weather)
  3. Day 3: oceanography and horticulture
  4. Day 4: astronomy
  5. Day 5: ichthyology (study of fish) and ornithology (study of birds)
  6. Day 6: zoology, biology and anatomy
• Backyard Wildlife Habitat: Help your children turn your backyard into a wildlife habitat for birds, bats and other creatures. See The A Woman's Place: Gardening for lots of links.

Summer Garden

Allow your children to have a small plot of ground for their own garden. Allow them to choose what will be grown and encourage them to learn new gardening skills as they go along. This is a great natural teaching situation: they can learn horticulture, biology, entomology and more. Here are some ideas for theme gardens:

• Butterfly garden (see Gardening for butterfly garden links)
• Teepee garden: tie 5-6 poles together at the top, have your children plant some kind of climbing plant (pole beans, cucumbers, morning glories, and more) at the base of the poles. The children can then play inside their cool summer teepee.
• Herb garden
• Strawberry garden in circular rows
• Favorite color garden
• Pizza garden: grow toppings in a circular garden plot

State History

Take the summer to visit historical sites and learn about your own state's history. You and your children might be surprised at how fun this can be. Give each child a disposable camera, a notebook and pencil, and head off. Your child can take rubbings of historical plaques using crayons and tissue or tracing paper. Help your child create a scrapbook of their photos, drawings and rubbings. Here are some places to visit:

• County courthouse
• State capital
• State parks
• cemetaries
• local museums
• airports
• local restaurants (mom and pop types)

Home Improvement

Are there some small improvement jobs that your child can do? Help you paint the bathroom? Sponge paint the hallway? Patch the walls where the kids have thrown objects in a fit of rage? If you include your children in home repair and improvement, it will increase the value of the home to them; they will then have a personal investment in your home and be less likely to damage it.

Maybe you can help your child decorate their own room: allow them to choose the basic colors, new sheets, curtains, comforter and some pictures or posters. Buy a cool lamp for their night table (get them a night table if they don't have one) to encourage reading before bed. Give them a budget and teach them how to keep track of what they have spent.

Summer Jobs

If your children are old enough to have contact with adults outside your family, these summer jobs might be just for them:

• Babysitting and mother's helper
• Pulling weeds
• Mowing yards
• Watering plants
• Pet sitting
• Dog walking

Volunteering

There are so many organizations that need volunteers that it should be no problem finding a place to plug your older child in:

• Nursing homes
• Reading tutor at summer school or in the neighborhood
• Mother's helper for a mother of young children: offer to clean, bathe the children and whatever else needs to be done two or three times a week
• Church office
• Vacation Bible school
• Homebound elderly: offer to read from the Bible, pull weeds in their garden, clean out a closet, whatever is needed

Summer School Fun Activities

Why not find some fun, educational lesson plans online for a daily dose of education? Here are some great links to help you find something to keep your child's skills fresh. And don't forget to let the children have fun with arts crafts.

• Timberdoodle - great educational resources
• Focus on Your Child from Focus on the Family - online stories and activies
• Answers in Genesis - Great Christian resources, videos, DVD's, books
• Aunt Annie's Crafts
• Michael's Kid's Club Projects

©Copyright 2007 by ADHD of the Christian Kind.