I am home schooling our nine-year old because she was doing so poorly in school. (“A” one day, “F” the next.) She takes a high dose Ritalin for ADD-daydreaming, not hyperactivity.
I have found that she does fine for a while and then shuts down completely, or starts the day “shut down’ and only gets going after a couple of hours. Sometimes, it will take an hour to complete something that took ten minutes the day before. It makes teaching her incredibly frustrating and difficult.
The advice I have been given is to stop pushing when she “shuts down”, and quit for the time being. That is fine advice, but it is just not practical. I only have a maximum of six hours each day in which I can teach her. If I quit every time she shuts down, I would be quitting multiple times every day.
Giving her breaks seems to make things worse. I have her do jumping jacks (might help slightly).
Is there any technique any one can suggest to prolong her ability to problem solve actively and to stay with the instruction?
We are maxed out on her medications so that is not an option. Thank you. Geraldine
It might be that consistency will work better than breaks (especially if they make things worse). Fifteen minute timers work for some kids (or even smaller chunks at first) with a goal for completion of what they can in that time. SOmetimes that kicks in the focus and they”ll keep going.
I always started my lessons (I tuaght 50 minutes of reading to middle/high schoolers) with easy review drill (the trick is to keep it from being not so easy practice because I”m trying to get through more stuff; it really ends up working more efficiently to do a quick drill of something she knows really well.) The opening work is always really highly structured.
You might want to incorporate consistent breaks and a fairly strict schedule for a week or two — some kids need flexibility, but some respond better to consistency.
Parents over at the Sonlight homeschool board Special Needs section have scads of really good, creatively structured ideas for getting kids focused and learning — you might want to cruise over and check it out.