Hi all, I'm a current homeschooler with 6.5 yo girl, a nearly 5 yo boy, and a 2.5 yo boy. I've recently begun thinking about the best/easiest/smoothest for us all path for incorporating my middle child into the "schoolish" part of our family. We have a few hurdles to overcome, though, and I'm hoping for some input.
A bit of background: We are a relaxed homeschool family, letting the kids lead much of their learning from real life, and supplementing my oldest with some laid-back reading instruction, math, and writing. We also do a little Sonlight core K and Science K together, and read some of their read-alouds. But this is all very much in the flow of the day, laid-back, and I usually have DD doing these things with little to no fuss. She likes it. We have fun together. I think that if she were in school she would be an a-student--she has a perfectionistic, pleaser personality, and learns quickly. She does not appear to be gifted in academics to me, but would be in the higher-level classes, probably.
My DS1 (nearly 5), taught himself how to read, spell, write, and is doing a lot of math by asking me a billion and one questions all day long. (things like, "what is 4 plus 4 plus 4?" then "what is 3 plus 3 plus 3 plus 3?" Then "what is 6 plus 6?" and then "what is 5 plus 1 plus 6?" You get the idea--how many ways can we partition a number? A lot.) He has ADHD fairly severely, in my opinion, and we do use some Ritalin for all of our mental health--it works very well for him/us, and I will be continuing this. He has been wanting to learn more and more about lots of things, and it is now clear to me that he is wanting some more input from me. I'm thinking of starting to work him more into our "school" routine soon.
However, my DS will be very distracting to DD when working with us. He will blurt out the answers that she is working on, and she is a reserved question-answerer, and he is REALLY not. I can see her having troubles with him in this way. He will probably pass her up in academic knowledge soon, but would have a hard time "doing work" to show what he knows (I don't care if he "does work", but I believe DD will see him not doing work like her in many negative ways).
I am seeking out three things.
1) Info on ways that people have had success in HSing a probably-gifted ADHD (combined type) kid--with or without other kids around. I am very willing to let him continue in a very unschool-inspired fashion, but I think if I can find a way for us all to participate together for some amount of time or for some of our activities, the daily routine will go more smoothly. Especially for my DD, who needs more instruction than he does. I don't know how many times I can field the "fairness" complaint from her. And I think my DS will like being a part of our family school stuff, if I can structure it in a way that he can be successful.
2) Is anyone familiar with a computer-interactive curriculum that DS could work through at his own leisurely or not-so-leisurely pace? I don't want him to do everything on the computer, I want him with me and interacting with me, and reading together some, too. However, his strengths, weaknesses, and interests allow him to maintain focus by far the longest on the computer. But, it would need to be fun, attractive, and splashy. And the program would have to not get all freaky on him for clicking on all the wrong answers. (he often will go through things clicking only the wrong answers so he can hear the big "ERRR!" sound and laugh hysterically. He knows the answer to each question, but is not a pleaser at all. This is an issue with the "Explode the Code online thing he likes to do--it doesn't advance him since he'll get all goofy sometimes). I could help him stay focused if there was a quiz/test to pass on to a new section and sit with him while he does this, but when exploring all the information, he will need to be able to work in a non-linear fashion.
3) any other insights or comments?
Sorry for being so long. I know it's a bit disjointed! Thanks in adance for any input you can give.
A bit of background: We are a relaxed homeschool family, letting the kids lead much of their learning from real life, and supplementing my oldest with some laid-back reading instruction, math, and writing. We also do a little Sonlight core K and Science K together, and read some of their read-alouds. But this is all very much in the flow of the day, laid-back, and I usually have DD doing these things with little to no fuss. She likes it. We have fun together. I think that if she were in school she would be an a-student--she has a perfectionistic, pleaser personality, and learns quickly. She does not appear to be gifted in academics to me, but would be in the higher-level classes, probably.
My DS1 (nearly 5), taught himself how to read, spell, write, and is doing a lot of math by asking me a billion and one questions all day long. (things like, "what is 4 plus 4 plus 4?" then "what is 3 plus 3 plus 3 plus 3?" Then "what is 6 plus 6?" and then "what is 5 plus 1 plus 6?" You get the idea--how many ways can we partition a number? A lot.) He has ADHD fairly severely, in my opinion, and we do use some Ritalin for all of our mental health--it works very well for him/us, and I will be continuing this. He has been wanting to learn more and more about lots of things, and it is now clear to me that he is wanting some more input from me. I'm thinking of starting to work him more into our "school" routine soon.
However, my DS will be very distracting to DD when working with us. He will blurt out the answers that she is working on, and she is a reserved question-answerer, and he is REALLY not. I can see her having troubles with him in this way. He will probably pass her up in academic knowledge soon, but would have a hard time "doing work" to show what he knows (I don't care if he "does work", but I believe DD will see him not doing work like her in many negative ways).
I am seeking out three things.
1) Info on ways that people have had success in HSing a probably-gifted ADHD (combined type) kid--with or without other kids around. I am very willing to let him continue in a very unschool-inspired fashion, but I think if I can find a way for us all to participate together for some amount of time or for some of our activities, the daily routine will go more smoothly. Especially for my DD, who needs more instruction than he does. I don't know how many times I can field the "fairness" complaint from her. And I think my DS will like being a part of our family school stuff, if I can structure it in a way that he can be successful.
2) Is anyone familiar with a computer-interactive curriculum that DS could work through at his own leisurely or not-so-leisurely pace? I don't want him to do everything on the computer, I want him with me and interacting with me, and reading together some, too. However, his strengths, weaknesses, and interests allow him to maintain focus by far the longest on the computer. But, it would need to be fun, attractive, and splashy. And the program would have to not get all freaky on him for clicking on all the wrong answers. (he often will go through things clicking only the wrong answers so he can hear the big "ERRR!" sound and laugh hysterically. He knows the answer to each question, but is not a pleaser at all. This is an issue with the "Explode the Code online thing he likes to do--it doesn't advance him since he'll get all goofy sometimes). I could help him stay focused if there was a quiz/test to pass on to a new section and sit with him while he does this, but when exploring all the information, he will need to be able to work in a non-linear fashion.
3) any other insights or comments?
Sorry for being so long. I know it's a bit disjointed! Thanks in adance for any input you can give.
