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The brainstorm of Merri Cue, a homeschooling mom of 5.

A common experience among homeschooling parents of special needs children is the exhausted, burnout stage. After trying to homeschool or school at home our ADHD children, we find that we might feel like we are spinning our wheels, have become scattered, unfocused, and just plain unable to go on as usual. Something has to change! Do we send our children to school because we feel we are are no longer able to go on? There is another way.

Merri, one of the moms on the ADD Homeschool List came up with a great solution to the burned out mom, bored, resistant children, "No learning taking place in this house anymore" syndrome. She created a list of subjects covering every aspect of learning. Listing these subjects on a sheet of paper, her children are expected to choose activities that come under the subject headings listed. They are to then record the amount of time spent on each subject. Here is the Archived Discussion: School vs. Learning.

After Merri shared her learning list with the ADD Homeschool List and it was joyfully received as the answer to many prayers, we wanted to be able to share this resource with other tired, burned out homeschooling moms. Below are links to several different formats in HTML, Excel, Quattro Pro, and Works for Windows.

The subjects covered are listed below with suggested activities or an explanation. This child-directed learning system works best with older children, but younger children can use it under the guidance of a parent.

Downloadable spreadsheet in different formats. Click on the link for the form that you think will work best in the software you have on your computer. Save it to your computer (note where you saved it). Open your spreadsheet program. Open the file and make changes as you like. If the file does not work, try another format. If all else fails, print out the html version.

Learning at Home - Works for Windows older version
Learning at Home - Works for Windows 4
Learning at Home - Microsoft Excel 97
Learning at Home - Quattro Pro
Learning at Home - HTML for IE or web other browser

• Art - drawing, painting, crafts, reading about the Masters
• Bible - devotions are done as a family or individually, Scripture memorization
• Civics - learning how to be a citizen in your town, city, state and country. Civics Links from A to Z Homeschooling.
• Critical Thinking - Mind benders, critical thinking software, logic games
• Free Reading - child chooses reading material
• Geography - filling in outline maps, salt maps, state capitals, computer software such as World Discovery Deluxe and even Leap Pad Geography
• Health - personal hygiene, effects of smoking or chewing tobacco, human body
• History/Social Studies - explore the history of a hobby, such as baseball, military vehicles, flight, world conquerors, Ancient Egypt, Old Testament history
• Language Arts - crossworld puzzles, spelling games, copywork, research on fun topic, write and present a speech on a hot topic such as abortion, free speech, freedom to homeschool
• Life Skills - homekeeping skills, meal planning, prep, presentation and cleanup, auto repair, animal care, animal husbandry (farm animals), home maintenance, sewing
• Math - math fact practice, keeping a virtual checkbook, home budgeting, living on your own simulation, computer games, tithing, savings account, virtual stock portfolio
• Music - learning different styles of music, music staff/notes, famous musicians, etc.
• Physical Education - pushups, running in place, President's Challenge, Little League or other team sports, exercise videos
• Read Aloud - reading stories to siblings, reciting poetry, learning intonation and elocution
• Required Reading - teacher-generated list of reading material with minimum number of hours each week
• Science - experiments, research, observation, hands-on science fun

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