ADHD of the Christian Kind
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 Homeschooling: Choosing Curricula

Homeschooling: Choosing Curricula

NOTICE: The following posts are taken from the Christian ADHD List. The names, e-mail addresses and locations of all parties involved have been removed to protect their privacy. The posts have been used with permission, but are copyrighted by ADHD of the Christian Kind.

I have 2 children, a daughter 7yo with ADHD and a son 6yo. Both are starting 1st grade. I have just decided to homeschool my children this year, last year they attended public school kindergarten. I am in the process of picking/defining curriculum and would welcome any suggestions.

My daughter and son have very different learning styles and strengths. My daughter is a visual learner and needs to move around, with lots of breaks. She is good for about 15 minutes of sitting still. She needs lots of repitition.

My son is an audiotory learner. He learns things fairly easily. He needs to be challenged. In kindergarten, he was not challenged, and since he likes to be the class clown, he used his spare time to entertain and get into trouble.

I would like to start out using the same curriculum for both of them. Any suggestions???

For math, I am looking at Math-U-See, Moving with Math, and Miquoin. I would love to hear input.

Take a look at www.k-12.com for curriculum. They have do it yourself curriculum to purchase or if they are in your state as a charter school (public school) you can get their curriculum (all materials and a computer) free. We are switching to k-12 because much of it is computer based and for our gifted/ adhd middle schooler, it's a good choice for her.

If you just type in homeschooling on your search engine, you'll get way more companies selling curriculum than you can manage.

www.switchedonschoolhouse.com is also another one that's computer based. These are less computer work for younger children and more computer work for older kids. I think the computer based curriculum is a good choice for a visual learner.

You can also get home schooling magazines now at your local bookstore that have lots of curriculum companies advertised.

There are many Christian curriculums also available on the web.

I have just been reintroduced to Learning Language Arts through Literature. These gentle books are great for teaching grammar, handwriting, writing, spelling, and more through snippets of good literature.

I used LLATL with my oldest son when he was in 7th grade and absolutely loved it. I loved it so much that I incorporated that same method in unit studies that I custom designed for my son in subsequent years.

Let me say this, though: I have never used the 1st grade version. I know that it includes a reading program, so it is much more expensive than subsequent grades.

For reading, I really like Phonics Pathways. It is a fat book with all that your child will need to be a fluent reader in a year or less. I used it for two years and am still using it. You could create spelling lists from this book instead of using a separate spelling program.

One word of warning: sometimes ADHD children do not learn well when in a group, even a group of two. While you are trying to work with one, they get distracted. This could be a challenge, one that I will be sharing with you since I will be teaching three of my children science and history together this year.

Whatever you do, try to keep it gentle and simple. You might want to limit structured learning times to 15 minutes max with a break for running around, singing, dancing, lots of arts and crafts, etc.

I have a webpage that describes all the different learning and teaching styles along with available curricula:

Homeschooling -- Who me?

There is also a webpage on homeschooling ADHD children (not very comprehensive, though): http://www.christianadhd.com/adhomeschool.html

Don't forget that you are not trying to reproduce school at home. You are trying to create a "learning environment".

I loved the Weaver Unit studies. They were great especially for my ADD children. However as an ADDult they required too much planning (as does any unit study not just this one). If you can do the planning I highly recommend it.

I have noticed that a couple of you have mentioned the Weaver Curriculum. I am using Sonlight and am wondering if any one can give me a comparison. Also, I am looking for a new math program. We are currently using Saxon and my girls hate it. Any recommendations there would be appreciated.

I just switched my son from MCP to Singapore. He really likes it. Yeah! No more fighting to do math.

I am also using sonlight. We didn't choose saxon because that is what they were using last year in public school. We are using excel this year. Next year we will go with Singapore math. As for weaver versus sonlight: On the forum on the sonlight website it actually gives the difference from a parents view. I believe it is in the first one in the archives and then down a ways.

I have finally decided that I really like Math U See. I would recommend it to anyone but especially those with ADHD. My dd was learning from it but, being me, I let someone else convince me that I should try something else so I did. Now after a year of trying other stuff I am going back to it. She can work at her own pace and I can reinforce as much or as little as I need to. I have the older version and I only have the videos and the teacher's manual so I copy any work sheets she may need from there. I have heard the newer version is nice also but don't hesitate to get the older one if you chose to go that way and you can find it for less. It works well too.

We use Horizons Math and love it. The worksheets are colorful, you learn something new but keep reviewing past stuff so you don't "forget". It is thorough. Make sure you get the teacher manuals they give you activties to do with your children outside what is on the worksheets.....buy the teacher s manual's used if you can find them...they will be cheaper.

How to help her retain what you taught is a trick from Charlotte Mason called narration My girls do not like to write so this method works great for us and I know they learned. If I read I have them tell me back what I read. if it is Math instructions or a Literature piece. When they read they tell me what it was they read. Testing check with your local school board.

I am still in the search-mode re: curriculum for my son. I've tried to make it to two home school fairs but haven't gotten to one yet. I want to be sure to get the right thing.

He struggles with getting his ideas on paper in reading & writing. Math is also a huge challenge for him. I really feel the one-on-one relationship with me is going to help him tremendously. He is very bright (as I believe most ADHD kids are) and carries A's in spelling. He was in the spelling bee this year which blew us away. We were incredibly proud. He needed that for his fragile self-esteem.

What are your thoughts on the different types of curriculum out there? I've heard about "unschooling" and methods by someone named Charlotte something. How old are your kids?

My children are 15yo son, 13yo daughter, 11yo son, 9yo son and 5yo son (not hsing yet), and a 26yo son who is on his own.

I homeschool the older 4 still at home in the following grades: 9th, 7th, 6th and 4th.

I have found that for the child who has difficulty getting thoughts down on paper, a computer is the best way to go. You don't have to use a computer curriculum, but your son will probably need to do his written work on the computer itself. My 15yo has to do this; he struggles with dysgraphia, a learning disability that affects the brain to hand to paper scenario. Also, be willing to allow your son to recite, narrate or giving you answers orally. You can then record in his lesson plans that he complete the assignment. You don't need a paper for everything.

Switched on Schoolhouse might be good for one subject -- maybe the one he hates the most so that it is easier for him.

My 15yo loves languages -- not grammar, but learning vocabulary words, Latin and Greek roots, foreign languages, so we use Vocabulary from the Classical Roots. My daughter is using this now and, although she doesn't love it, is doing well with it.

I prefer unit studies for history, or literature studies such as Beautiful Feet Books publishes. They have these in primary and highschool grade levels.

We use Apologia Science for all the children now. Excellent self-study science courses. Highly recommend this.

The 7th grade level of Learning Language Arts Through Literature is excellent. This is the green book. I used this with my oldest when he was in highschool and he loved it. It is so commonsense and integrated. Remember, you don't have to use the grade levels given for every course. For the subject that your son struggles with the most, you can go down a level and build self-esteen. I do this all the time. They study the same stuff every year in Language Arts over and over and over. Using a lower level won't handicap your son.

We use Saxon Math for most of the children. Math U See is supposed to be esp. ADHD-kid friendly.

Charlotte Mason method is something that can be researched online. I guess I have gleaned some ideas from her philosophy of teaching, but don't adhere to it completely. I don't adhere to anything completely. I am an eclectic homeschooler. LOL

What my kids hated the most? A Beka grammar and composition. My 15yo likes Writing Strands. 13yo hates it.

Hope this isn't too much to chew on at once. I need to get off the computer. There is loud pounding on a wall -- think my 15yo is taking down the house.

Looking for curriiculum now is the time to ask for sample packets from the different vendors. Check out www.homeschoolfreestuff.com Talk to his teacher about what they use. See if the district provides any homeschool support. My two cents is the computer and manipulatives are the things to look for in curriculum.

Will your son sit and watch videos? There are lots of great educational videos out there. I am looking at some for my 3 youngest (4, 2, 6m) to watch while my 3 oldest (5, 7, 10) do reading assignments. We have a few, and my 2 yo learned her abc's this way. She even recognizes some of them. The 5 and 4 girls like singing, so we have abc tapes they listen to. We also have the Frontline Phonics program. It has a cd, workpages, and is really great if you ask me.

Helping in the kitchen is good for math. Laundry is good for science and math. (bleach is a chemical; sorting, colors, bigger vs smaller, grouping are all math concepts for young children) I know he is older than preschool, but it wouldn't hurt to reenforce all of these concepts for a few weeks to make sure he has them.

Then go a step further. If you want to do your own curriculum, try looking at the book, Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp. It gives you an idea of what to teach at each grade level.

What works for us happens to be workbooks (with the speech/language issue, dd needs the familiar formatting to keep her comfortable) however, we rarely sit still. Dd does them standing up, lying under the table, wherever. We reinforce with manipulatives and we write on whiteboard/chalkboards. The only thing I make her sit still for is reading, but only when she's reading to me and even then I hold the book and she can bounce around if she wants to as long as she keeps her place (not always easy).

I know some people think ABEKA isn't interesting enough for ADHD'ers but dd loves their stuff - its colorful and while it covers the basics and reinforces it, it doesn't always do the same thing 5 days in a row.

For reading I would pick a good phonics program that you are comfortable with (again I like ABEKA) and find out what kinds of stories your son likes and read read read to him and have him pick out certain words or read a sentence per page to you.

Also, my girls will do anything on the computer so websites like starfall.com and reader rabbit programs, reading and math blaster, etc go a long way around here.

I know it is overwhelming, and the first year we homeschooled I bought a ton of stuff we only used a little bit and then pitched because it didn't work for us. Maybe ask your son what kinds of things he liked to do in school and start with those kinds of activities? Pretty much every kid is different and thus the myriad of choices for curriculum!

I wanted to recommend Reading Reflex to you. It's not worksheets, and it's not typical of what you may have used in the past. However, it is excellent! Any child can learn to read with this program, but it's especially helpful for kids who are behind in their reading, or struggling to keep up. I've used it with 2 boys, and it's worked great for both of them (one who struggled with reading, and one who didn't). Here's the link to their site. http://www.readamerica.net/

I'd also encourage you to visit amazon.com and read their reviews of it. All you really need is the main textbook, all of the rest of the stuff is just fluff. It's around $16.

Some other things I wanted to mention about your son, is that maybe he would benefit from you doing some research on right brained learning. Raising a Right brained learner in a Left Brained World (something like that!) is an excellent book to start with. There are also other books that give actual ideas to help teach such as Unicorns are Real. Both of these books can probably be found at your local library, or through inter library loan. Another good book is Getting Your Child off the Refrigerator and onto Learning.

There's also a website that was helpful to me, it's http://www.diannecraft.com

I also find Charlottes Mason's approach is wonderful, especially for adhd children. Karen Andreola's book called A Charlotte Mason Companion is a good book to find out about this way of learning and this way of life.

My 11yo uses SOS and has for several years now. It is the only curriculum that has worked for him, esp. since he has always had problems writing.

It works well for some children and not so well for others. I do believe they need to be strong readers.

I do recommend that you begin with only two subjects to start: Language Arts and Math. You can add Science and History if you really like the first two subjects. Or use unit studies or just living books for the History and Science.

When I was homeschooling my oldest in that grade range, I created unit studies based on subjects that I thought he would be interested in. I based these unit studies on the Learning Language Arts Through Literature method. Maybe one of these books would be helpful. I love the dictation, studying grammar, spelling, etc. based on the literature being studied at the time.

My son is 5.5 yrs old and we have found that using the Handwriting without tears program has helped immensely with his writing. He likes using the chalk and little chalk board (when the weathers good he writes on the drive way), he also likes to make his letters and numbers with shaving cream on a cookie sheet or out of play dough. Writing was a difficult for our ds too, but this program has helped a lot. I won't that he Loves to do it but he finds it tolerable and enjoys the chalk and shaving cream.

ADHD of the Christian Kind

Christian Kind