Here's my latest column, hope you enjoy!!
In many places school is in full swing. I had the pleasure of learning that a mere days after taking my son off his 504 plan and his meds almost concurrently, he began to bomb rapidly in school. He had missing assignments, worse than ever handwriting and an almost maxed out frustration level.
Along with working harder to find a med that will work, I also took the time to restructure our homework time. I'm only about a week into the process, but so far it really seems to be helping.
Here are three tips to structure your homework time as effectively as possible:
1. Time it appropriately. Start homework too late and the kids will already be tired. Start too early and they won't have enough time to wind down after being at school all day. My kids go to an after school program, so when we get home, they have already had time to run around and play. On days where they don't get that play time, I try to get them to burn off some energy before we try to buckle down and get to business.
2. Make sure you have everything you need. And by everything, I mean everything. I always make sure to get an extra textbook for home, but of course, my son is working out of a different textbook. This was an issue when we had to try and get caught up last week.
Make sure you have enough school supplies. I know at Target where I live, most of the school supply extras are on clearance, so I will go and buy a ton of paper and other necessities for the rest of the year.
3. Make it fun, keep it fun. Homework is not usually fun, but when you are working with someone who has the attention span of a gnat, it's important to try and make it as least painful as possible. We do Nerd homework at least once a week. Basically, we take a small (and by small I mean as minuscule as possible) candy and put it next to each homework problem. Then, after each problem, they get a candy. Talk about immediate gratification!
We also do a daily homework check in the agenda, again with the immediate gratification of either a piece of gum, or if we have the time, video game time.
This can easily be modified. Give a treat for breaking down a science project into smaller bits, for reading for a certain chunk of time or any other task.
Another way to make homework fun is to be different. This week, I let my daughter, who is in first grade, write her spelling words in red pen and then type them on the computer. She ended up practicing them 5 times and she loved it because she got to do things she normally doesn't get to.
Homework can be the bane of our existence as ADHD parents, but there are ways to make it less painful. The key is constant diligence and thinking outside the box.
Do you have an ADHD/ADD educational issue you would like to see addressed? If so, please email me at info@mommyadd.com and I will try to feature it in a new column or on my blog at www.MommyADD.com.
Great post! This fits right in with a post/Whrrl photo story of mine. Share the news! There are strategies out there.http://rightleftbrainpower.blogspot.com/2009/09/jazz-up-study-time.html
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