Having a child who lives with anxiety can often be an overwhelming experience. It’s painful for us, as parents, to watch our children struggle with the weight of anxiety disorder. We work tirelessly to help them learn coping mechanisms, develop strategies for managing their anxiety, and help them live their best lives. What if there was one small thing—something many of us might already be doing—that could add another layer of support to their anxiety management?
I am currently parenting and home educating a child who has generalized anxiety disorder. Because I also happen to be an adult who lives with anxiety disorder, I have a deeper understanding of what my child is experiencing. I’ve been there and can truly empathize with my child’s feelings.
After a lifetime of searching out different coping techniques, I still find new things to try or think about. I recently came across an article discussing how reading can help anxiety. It made me think about all the books I crawled into when I was younger, as a way to self-manage my anxious moments. I thought about the times I snuggled up to my kids with a good book when one of them was having their own hard day. It really clicked, and I started to dig a little deeper.
Bibliotherapy Soothes the Anxious Mind
Above the door of the ancient library at Thebes, was inscribed the phrase Healing Place For The Soul. As long as there have been stories to tell and stories to read, humans have used the written word as a way to soothe our hearts and ease our minds.
There is a term for this, bibliotherapy, the act of using books to aid in treating mental health disorders. Particular stories can give our minds a way to see things and find solutions.
Sure, we all love a good book or a good story, but how can we use books intentionally to help our children deal with their anxiety? One of the most effective treatments I’ve tried for anxiety disorder is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). In a nutshell, this is the act of retraining how we think about a situation, so that we can rewire our brain in its reaction to the situation.
Reading a novel can be a powerful way reframe a bad or scary thing. In the book, we watch the character solve that problem and fight that scary thing to victory. The more we read about a character overcoming a struggle, the more our brains start to learn other ways to respond to a threatening trigger.
Reading Lets the Anxious Child Be The Hero
GK Chesterton once said, “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
Books show us that the things we’re scared of, the situations that trigger our anxiety, can be beaten. Our children read a hero’s tale and see an ordinary everyday character—just like them—go on a journey through dark moments and scary places. They see our hero fight the darkness and emerge victorious.
Reading puts our children in front of these heroes and lets them imagine themselves as the victor, conquering the dragon. It gives them a brief experience of feeling that bravery and beating their foe.
Reading Reminds Us That There is Good in the World
When you live with anxiety, the world can seem overwhelming—full of terrifying events. To our children, these fears can become all-consuming. When we read a book, we are reminded of the good in the world:
that people can be strong and brave
that love can, and does, win
that we can persevere and overcome
Finding books with characters who do the good things and overcome adversity reminds our children that the world is not such a scary place.
Reading Gives the Anxious Mind Something to Do
A child who is feeling anxious will often have a million thoughts going all at once. They may be scatterbrained, or they might become intensely fixated on one problem or thought. When we sit down to read an engaging book, we give our minds something productive and enjoyable to do.
In an anxiety episode, our child’s mind is looking for trouble—in full flight or fight mode. If we give the mind something to focus on, it can’t keep fixating on the anxiety trigger. This kind of mindfulness activity can be an excellent coping mechanism, and books are a great way to do it. You can’t read a book and think of five other things at the same time. A good book will pull you in, and your mind will slowly let all the other worries fall off to the side.
Once your child spends time focusing their mind on one task, their mind can feel less scattered and frantic. Along the way, they’ll hopefully get pulled into a wonderful story or a fantastical world.
As home educating parents, we read all the time. We have family Read-Alouds in our curriculum, and literature for our homeschool lessons. We listen to audiobooks in the car on our way to activities. Reading can be such a large part of our lives already. How wonderful it is that we can also use it to help our children cope with fear and anxiety. with our children. Draw out the topics they are interested in and can relate to, ask questions that spark opinions and more questions, and get excited about what will happen next. Your kids will follow suit and you’ll be digging in and having valuable discussions with them before you know it.
About the Author
Nadine Dyer is a homeschooling parent to two great kids and the lucky wife to one amazing guy. She and her family, which also includes four spoiled guinea pigs, reside in beautiful (and chilly!) northern Ontario, Canada. Nadine is the author of upabovetherowantree.com where she shares her journey, with all its ups and downs, as a secular homeschooling parent. When she isn’t homeschooling or writing, Nadine can usually be found in search of good coffee, good books, and great conversation.
Dyslexia and dysgraphia have some overlapping challenges; both make language-based learning an uphill battle. But while dyslexia’s struggles are mostly reading-related, dysgraphia’s struggles are mostly writing-related:
difficulty with spelling
trouble organizing thoughts into written sentences and paragraphs
challenges with the physical act of writing
We’ve had our share of all of these over the years. Nearly all styles of homeschooling require writing of some kind. But how do you teach what’s necessary when your child has trouble with writing or even completing worksheets? Here are five simple but powerful tweaks that you can make for your child with dysgraphia. They remove the bulk of the challenge of writing so that kids can better focus on the academic topic at hand.
1. Complete the Work Orally
We do a lot of our work out loud. For most of the elementary years, my kids narrate (orally retell) what they have read in every subject. Even in middle school, my daughter and I have book chats rather than completing literature worksheets. We cover the same material, and I’ll often ask the same questions as a literature worksheet has asked. But the questions are answered out loud, on the couch, over a cup of tea.
Writing begins in the mind, organizing our thoughts before they ever become words on a page. And for those who tend to be more extroverted anyway, talking outloud is a natural way to organize what we are thinking.
2. Serve as a Scribe for Your Child
After a long period of time of narrating out loud to me, my kids then go through a stage where I write down what they verbally express. Trying to hold a thought and write it at the same time can be particularly challenging for a child who has a language-based disability.
By writing down what my child is saying, I’m modeling the next step of the process without adding extra mental work.
Scribing is not just something we do in writing class, though.
I’ve scribed sections of a long math page when the process of writing the answers was more overwhelming than the math computation itself.
I’ve scribed spelling, as my child told me what letter to put down next.
We’ve scribed phonics worksheets and grammar lessons.
Whenever I felt the skill we were learning was more important than the physical act of writing, I picked up the pencil instead of handing it to my child.
3. Use a Dry Erase Board
I stumbled upon this quite by accident, and I don’t even remember how it happened. But one day I realized my daughter was willingly writing her own original paragraph on a large dry erase board with a marker, something she would never have been able to attempt on a piece of paper.
For awhile, a smaller dry erase board helped her complete her math problems as well. She could write as large as she needed and color-code the columns of numbers to help her line up the correct place values. Once again, she was focused on the academic skills without the added complication of writing small enough to fit the space in a workbook.
4. Don’t Fill Out Worksheets
Instead of writing on a worksheet which can cause frustration due to the tiny spaces, use it merely as a guide for writing on another medium.
For example, my youngest also has a very hard time writing the size that his worksheets require. His handwriting ability lags behind his phonemic awareness. But there’s no need to let his handwriting hold him back in his reading lessons!
Rather than mark vowels or divide syllables within the narrow spaces of a worksheet, I copy the words from his worksheet onto individual index cards, as large as the card allows. My son easily works through each word card, marking vowels and circling phonograms, and then happily feeds the completed cards to his tissue-box monster we’d made together.
He was focused on the reading skills he was ready to master but no longer discouraged by his weaker writing skills.
5. Use Technology
My kids learn typing skills early on. It’s my sneaky way of enforcing letter recognition, spelling, and reading. But typing has also helped my kids to progress with writing skills without being discouraged with spelling, grammar, and handwriting.
When it’s time to write, I always allow automated spell check and other assistive technology. Dyslexia Aid is another favorite that allows my child to dictate a phrase or sentence into the app and see it translated into text. For my family, it’s a matter of deciding which skill or combination of skills we are prioritizing, rather than insisting on all the skills at once.
It’s kind of ironic that we have chosen a literature-based homeschool with our assortment of language-based disabilities, but it’s not a decision I’ve ever doubted or regretted. Our challenges have not kept us from either enjoying good books or having deep thoughts about those books. We’ve simply changed our tools and strategies for success—and sometimes our expectations.
But in the end, that’s the life lesson I want my children to take with them. No personal difficulty has to signal the end of something we value; we simply have to find a solution that rises to the challenge.
About the Author
Tracy Glockle lives with her husband in Oregon where she homeschools their crew of three kids with ADHD/dyslexia. She’s constantly making adjustments for her out-of-the-box learners, finding creative ways to use their strengths to teach their weaknesses. As the frontal lobe for her family of ADHDers, Tracy loves planners and systems and organization. But housecleaning—that’s something else entirely. She enjoys black coffee, superhero action films, and reading the end of a story first. Tracy writes about homeschooling ADHD and dyslexia for several blogs including her own at Growing In Grace.
Are you ever curious about other BookShark families? We can assure you that, after interacting with so many customers at conventions and online, every family is unique! While there is another family like yours in some ways, there is no other family exactly like yours!
BookShark families span the gamut of family size, makeup, and approach to homeschooling. Of course, the one thing they all have in common is a passion for their kids. They invest deeply in and advocate fiercely for the academic and emotional well-being of their children.
One example is Kelsey, mom to Emmett, living in North Carolina. You may know Kelsey from Instagram where she posts under the handle @_little_mama_purple. We recently interviewed Kelsey to learn more about her homeschool experience. She will inspire you to overcome your own challenges and grasp all the benefits homeschooling offers!
Meet Emmett
BookShark: Let’s start with Emmett, because he’s such an adorable little fellow on Instagram. Tell me a little bit about him.
Kelsey: He loves books, puzzles, and his tablet. I always bribe him with his tablet. If he’s having a bad morning, and doesn’t want to do school, I ask, “Well, don’t you want to earn tablet time?”
BookShark: So that’s his motivator? Smart!
Kelsey: Yes. Emmett is six. He will be seven in September (2019). He has autism, global apraxia, and generalized epilepsy. He started wearing glasses at age four.
BookShark: What is apraxia?
Kelsey: It means that he has trouble talking and visually doing things¹. Sometimes he’ll write a word out, but he’ll leave a letter off. But in his head, he thinks he wrote that letter.
BookShark: Tell me about your choice to homeschool.
Kelsey: When it was time to enroll Emmett in kindergarten, we did an IEP with the school. They told me that he would get less therapies than he does now using our insurance. So, I decided to homeschool from that point.
BookShark: Did you have Emmett enrolled with services at age 3 because of his special needs?
Kelsey: No! I didn’t know there was special education available when he was little. I didn’t know there was early intervention, until he was almost too old to be in it. Nobody told me. They just handed me his diagnosis and said, “Here you go. He needs OT, speech therapy, and ABA². Go find it. Good luck.”
BookShark: Golly. That’s tough.
Kelsey: Yes.
BookShark: When you went to the school to find out about enrolling him, you discovered the lack of support for his special needs. That’s when you decided you wanted to go the private insurance, homeschool route, right?
Kelsey: Correct.
BookShark: Okay, and do you feel good about your decision to homeschool?
Kelsey: Yes, I do because Emmett loves to read. He’s currently learning to read using Reading Eggs, along with BookShark, and he just loves it. I mean, he brings me books every day. He asks, “Read to me.”
BookShark: But do you think that would be different if he weren’t being homeschooled?
Kelsey: I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t be learning to read at all. He has some behavioral problems, like if he doesn’t get his way he can become aggressive towards others. I’m assuming that the school would put him in a classroom setting where might be disciplined to a point that would negatively impact his learning.
But because we homeschool, if he’s having a bad day, we take a break, we go do something else, and then we come back and it gets done. Even the best teachers in the world, they can’t love Emmett like I do. And the teachers have way too many children in the classroom, in my opinion.
BookShark: So are you planning on continuing to homeschool him?
Kelsey: Yes, I am. We already applied for a homeschool grant this year, and if we get it, we’ll be able to continue with BookShark curriculum.
Every Kid Should Be Homeschooled at Least Once
BookShark: Did you have any previous experience with homeschooling before you started homeschooling Emmett?
Kelsey: Yes, I was homeschooled from seventh grade until high school.
BookShark: So, you already had that in the back of your mind—that that could be a good experience?
Kelsey: Yes.
BookShark: Do you think there are parents whose kids would benefit from homeschooling but they don’t know about homeschooling?
Kelsey: Yes. I totally believe that. I totally believe every kid should be homeschooled at least once. Homeschooling makes you closer to your parents; you do more with your parents. You have a different relationship than if your parents send you away to school, you come home, you do homework, and then they put you to bed. You don’t really get to spend a lot of time with them.
BookShark: So I guess what you’re saying there, is as a mom, you would find one of the big benefits of homeschooling is the time you get to spend with Emmett?
Kelsey: Yes, definitely.
BookShark: What are some of the other benefits for you?
Kelsey: We get to go to the park when we feel like it. We get to go shopping when we feel like it; we don’t have to go when the store is totally super crowded. I mean, we can just get up and say, “Okay, let’s homeschool at two o’clock this afternoon, and let’s just go do some running around, and get some stuff done.”
Homeschooling Has Made Him a Reader
BookShark: What kind of strides has Emmett made in these two years of homeschooling?
Kelsey: He loves math. He’s a wiz at it. In language arts, he’s learning to write his name. He can now sign birthday cards himself. I found out that he loves dogs and horses. We just finished reading the book No Children, No Pets [in BookShark Level K]. He absolutely loves that book. I even had to put the book down one day when it was 70 degree weather outside. I told him, “No, we’re not going to read another chapter. Let’s go play outside for a while.”
BookShark: Now, you said Emmett has trouble speaking, but he can speak, right?
Kelsey: Yes. He speaks at like a three year old level, but he has a communication device that he uses.
BookShark: So, when he reads, does he just read silently?
Kelsey: No, he reads out loud, but he reads it phonetically.
BookShark: You also do a lot of reading out loud to him, I assume?
Kelsey: Yes. Yes, I do. All the time.
BookShark: Great. Well, when you decided to homeschool, I’m curious if you had any fears or concerns before you started?
Kelsey: Just teaching him to read has been my fear, but after my friend showed me Reading Eggs, it’s been real easy. And he loves the phonics books—Fun Tales—that are part of BookShark.
BookShark: I’m glad you found something that works well! Everybody uses BookShark in their own way, and it’s not bad or wrong, by any means, to supplement with extras if needed. So what parts of BookShark do you use? Do you use the full package?
Kelsey: We use everything but the science worksheets.
BookShark: Okay, but you read the science books?
Kelsey: Yes, we read all the science books. He loves them. He’s loving the Usborne Encyclopedia with the QR links [in BookShark Science K]. He loves to watch a video after I read what’s on the page.
BookShark: That’s super. So, what would you say BookShark, specifically, has done for your homeschool experience with Emmett?
Kelsey: Exposed us to books I would’ve never bought.
BookShark: Yeah, why not?
Kelsey: I’m one of those people that judges a book by its cover. I think, “I don’t really want to read that. It looks too hard to read.” Or, “The cover doesn’t look inviting.” But with BookShark, I’m like, “Well, it’s scheduled. Let’s read it and see.” And then I end up liking it!
BookShark: That’s excellent. Yeah, you’re right. A lot of people say that, that they go to the library and they’re just not sure what’s a good book and what’s not. These books are already chosen for you!
Homeschooling as a Mom with Autism
BookShark: So, I’m curious. You yourself have autism, and you’re very open about that. Your YouTube channel and your Instagram profile both say that you have autism. So, when did you discover that you have autism?
Kelsey: When I was 3. Emmett was doing something that reminded me of myself as a kid, and my friend said, “Well, go get tested. They can say yes or no. A diagnosis does not change who you are.” So, I got tested, and they told me I was level one³.
BookShark: When you learned that, did a lot of things just suddenly make sense for you?
Kelsey: Yes, definitely. I understood better how my brain works. I understood why I had meltdowns as a kid.
BookShark: So, Emmett has autism, too. Do you think that your having autism makes you a better homeschool parent, or does it provide extra challenges, or maybe it’s both? I’d love to hear your perspective on that.
Kelsey: I think it’s challenging, because sometimes my own autism makes me want to just get things done. But he’s having a meltdown and doesn’t want to do something.
But I’m learning to just go at his own pace, and whatever I’m feeling, just bury it deep, because it’s more about what he needs, not what I need. I’m getting more understanding of Emmett as I get older, but sometimes my own sensory needs take over. In those times, I just walk away for a while.
BookShark: That’s what moms do.
Kelsey: Yes, they do.
Anybody Can Use BookShark
BookShark: Do you think any family could use BookShark regardless of what kind of special need the family experiences?
Kelsey: Yeah, everybody could use BookShark. I think learning through literature is way better than doing a dusty old textbook.
Kelsey: Yes, because it changes. You’re not doing the same thing. When you do the same thing over and over again, they’ll get bored really easily.
BookShark: Oh, really? I thought autistic kids liked that pattern and repetition?
Kelsey: They do when it comes to a schedule. They want to know that math is coming up next and science after that. But they don’t want their science to be boring—the same every day. It it gets boring, they’re going to have a meltdown because they just don’t want to do it.
BookShark: I see. So, what do you do when the meltdowns happen? I know you say you just kind of step away. Is that your main strategy—take a break?
Kelsey: Yeah, take a break. For example, in level K, there are the writing sheets where they practice writing words and then sentences. Emmett has meltdowns about writing, so we just slowly do them throughout the year. If he has a meltdown, we take a couple days off. Then we pick it back up, and I see if he’s ready.
BookShark: That’s really good advice for a lot of homeschool parents. When you go slowly, this means you get “behind,” so to speak, on the sheets, right? Does that bother you? How do you deal with that feeling of “being behind”?
Kelsey: It bothered me at first, but now it doesn’t bother me at all. I know we’ll get to them when we get to them. Even if I pick them up two years later, we’ll still get to them when we get to them.
From “You Can’t Homeschool!” to “You Can’t Put Him in Public School!”
BookShark: When I think about your story, Kelsey, I’m struck by the number of challenges you face. You have autism, and your son has complex special needs. You’re a single mom, too. Some people might look at a situation like that and think, “Well, she can’t homeschool.” What do you say to that?
Kelsey: Yeah, my friends thought that I couldn’t homeschool. My friends wanted me to get a job and put him in public school. But now they’ve changed their tune to “You can’t put him in public school! You need to homeschool him!”
Actually, I am somebody else’s inspiration to homeschool! I have a friend—she has a YouTube channel where she talks about life with her daughter with autism who is about the same age as Emmett. She follows me on Instagram and says, “Every time I go on your Instagram account, I’m always writing down things I need to try with my daughter.”
She is talking about homeschooling her daughter next year because of what she’s seen me do with Emmett.
BookShark: That’s great, Kelsey. I love that you are encouraging other people to homeschool and showing people that while it’s challenging, it can be done! I’m just so happy that you are able to educate Emmett at home where he can be safe and loved, and he can grow at his own pace.orward in their education. Project-based assessments give children the opportunity to get their hands busy and their creative ideas flowing.
² ABA is Applied Behavioral Analysis. This system of autism treatment teaches desired behaviors through a system of rewards and consequences. Read more here.
³ There are three severity levels for autism spectrum disorder, one to three. Read more here.
If you have children with ADHD, reading may not be their strong suit. Or if you’re fortunate enough to have an ADHD child who is a bookworm, that child might struggle to recall information or answer questions about the work afterward. For active kids, sitting down and reading can pose a challenge. With a few tweaks, though, a book-based curriculum can be perfect for ADHD kids.
Why a Book-Based Curriculum is Perfect for ADHD Kids
Some of the suggestions for teaching kids with ADHD include using video games, computer software, and active play as outlets for their mental and physical energy. As a result, parents might wonder about the value of using a book-based curriculum for children who have ADHD. Here are a few reasons why a literary approach can help:
A book-based curriculum improves comprehension skills. Children who have ADHD often struggle with comprehension due to executive function issues. Reading and learning to summarize what they read helps these kids improve their ability to grasp information and retell it.
Reluctant readers can see the value in books. If your children don’t enjoy reading books, they may feel differently after seeing how much they can learn from reading them. This is especially true if the curriculum is implemented in a way that lets them make or do something on their own.
Using a book-based curriculum inspires creativity. As children hear various book genres (legends, historical fiction, comedy, suspense, etc.), they are introduced to different styles of writing and storytelling. These stories can spark their imaginations, giving them material to think, write, and create their own works.
How to Create a Book-Based Curriculum for ADHD Kids
So the big question is: How can you create a book-based curriculum for kids with ADHD? The key is to choose books that are exciting and stimulating enough to hold your child’s interest. Here are a few tips:
1. Choose books with illustrations
Pictures do wonders for kids with ADHD. They take books from the abstract to the possible. When kids can see what’s happening, they remain invested in the story.
2. Create activities based on the plot.
Take any and everything you can from the book and make it into an activity, craft, or project. These extension ideas help active kids think more about what’s happening and remember the plot more clearly.
3. Encourage kids to write their own stories.
Add in a few writing prompts as you progress through the book to stimulate your children’s writing skills. When a chapter ends, ask “What do you think will happen next?” Then have them write about it. Or when the book ends, ask them to come up with an alternate ending.
4. Use immersion reading.
Immersion reading refers to reading a work while listening to it in audio form. Kids who tend to move around also tend to have short attention spans, so keep their minds on the material by having them follow along as it’s read. They’ll stay on task much better.
You can definitely make a book-based curriculum the perfect choice for kids with ADHD. Just remember: Keep the stories interesting, engaging, and interactive. If you do, your active learners will become lifelong readers.
My son rolled under the table in the back of the preschool room while his teacher read a book to the group, and I watched on in mild embarrassment. Why couldn’t he focus like the other kids? Why wasn’t he sitting and taking in the story as raptly as the others were?
He’s just a sponge, who takes in everything and internalizes things, making cognitive leaps so quickly.
As the teacher finished, I saw him creep back towards the carpet slowly, though he was still very wiggly, and stayed slightly set back from the others. She started asking questions—basic ones like, “What color is the hat the kid was wearing?” and “Why did he need to buy a new toy?” The children chimed in with simple answers.
My son crept still closer until he was in a position to join the conversation. He started by comparing the story to a television program his dad watched a few nights ago, and through that comparison, he applied the moral of the story to everyday life. The teacher looked at him knowingly. His mind didn’t operate on the same plane as that of the other children.
He then went back under the table, squirming while he waited for his sweet teacher to tell the others what they needed to do in their center work. Afterwards, she came over to give him a very different task to complete.
What is Giftedness and Asynchronous Development?
According to The Columbus Group (1991), giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. This asynchrony increases with higher intellectual capacity. The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching, and counseling in order for them to develop optimally.
Asynchronous development is arguably the defining characteristic of the gifted. This means that their development is out of sync with their neurotypical peers. For my four-year-old in the anecdote above, it meant that he was listening intently to that picture book, making incredible leaps from the the story, and connecting, then applying those thoughts to a news story and to life. All while rolling around on the floor like a typical four year old boy—although at an inappropriate time.
Homeschooling the Gifted Child
While the mom in me cringed at the sight of my kiddo being the only one who looked like he wasn’t paying attention and focused on the behavior rather than the result, the gifted specialist in me had seen things like this so many times before.
In that preschool room observing gifted asynchrony from a parent’s perspective, I realized that I never fully understood all that the parents of the gifted, profoundly gifted, and twice-exceptional children with whom I’d worked with for decades had been trying to tell me. And, in retrospect, I wish I’d realized then how important homeschooling would be to this particular kiddo, and had chosen to keep him home from the start.
Gifted children thrive in a homeschool setting where they can be themselves—wiggly and fidgety or laser-focused on a self-selected topic. They thrive when their tasks can be customized for them, or when they can follow rabbit trails of interest to them with a gifted homeschool curriculum.
We didn’t homeschool our son from the beginning, and those few years of schooling were hard.
Finding and Modifying a Homeschool Program for Gifted Students
There are just so many layers to giftedness, and that definition from the Columbus Group is crucial for parents—especially homeschoolers—to keep in mind every time we go to choose a curriculum.
The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching, and counseling in order for them to develop optimally.
The search for the perfect curriculum can feel overwhelming for the parent of a gifted child. It’s like the story of Goldilocks—too deep, not deep enough, too slow, too fast—it’s nearly impossible to find just right. And the truth is—there isn’t a just right curriculum for a gifted kiddo. (And if anyone tells you that they have developed a gifted homeschool curriculum, run away.)
Image Credit: Syeda@thepreciousyears on Instagram
Using BookShark Literature-Based Curriculum with Gifted Students
So, does BookShark work for gifted kids?
Absolutely.
But, like any other program, you’re going to need to think outside the box as you use it.
BookShark is an amazing, literature-rich program that is all planned out for you and full of wonderful books of all genres. It boasts a four-day schedule, with a very detailed and easy-to-use teacher’s guide. It’s literally an open-and-go curriculum.
For most people.
Needless to say, I’ve adapted the program heavily just like I would with any program for my gifted learners.
My kids want to hear the stories. They don’t want to stop after a chapter, so we binge read and finish 2-3 of the Read-Alouds in a week if that works for us. There’s no shortage of retention. The conversations in the van while trekking to theater rehearsals and science programs are rich and deep. The books inspire deep thinking, and my kids love the mental challenge!
The most important thing to remember as you’re using a curriculum like BookShark with gifted learners is that you’ll have to make it your own. For example, we skip the current event reports assigned in the Instructor’s Guide. While the reasoning behind doing them is solid and important as explained in the guide, my kiddos don’t need to do reports on current events because they already eat, sleep, and breathe critical thinking and opinions. Goodness gracious… the opinions in a room full of gifted children can overwhelm, but lead to fascinating conversations.
We also don’t follow the four-day schedule as laid out in the Instructor’s Guide. For many gifted children, the idea of jumping from section to section (or subject to subject) is a drag once they get excited to learn about something. Instead, we take a more integrative approach.
I look at each book suggestion and the activities that go along with it, see how they tie into any geography or timeline activities, go over the discussion question all at once, and then we read. It may take us a day or two to finish a book, or several weeks, but we take it at the pace we deem best, making a new decision with each title and our engagement in that title. And, actually, for the very advanced reader, a parent may not even ask any of the discussion questions while the book is being read.
I let my ten-year-old read as quickly as she wants to—and sometimes that includes several books in one day—and then we might chat about some of the questions in the guide once she’s completed the entire book and wants to move onto the next one.
The truth is that an Instructor’s Guide is just that—a guide. Parents of gifted children need to read through the guide to see the scope and sequence of a curriculum and what will be taught, but then the Instructor’s Guide serves as your springboard for devising a pace that works for you.
How Book-based Homeschool Curriculum Works for Gifted Learners
For a gaggle of gifted kids—or just one, for that matter—a book-based curriculum like BookShark allows them to push forward at their own pace, reading as much as they desire, sometimes finishing several weeks worth of content in a single week. It also allows for them to go deep when they find a topic they’re interested in and fall down a rabbit hole or two by pulling in more books, diving into writing or project suggestions, or just talking endlessly about their latest discovery.
In our case, the five and eight year olds will probably revisit this program and its books on their own in a few years when they’re reading independently. By then, they’ll breeze through two years in one because they’ll have the prior knowledge from which to draw.
The ten-year-old will probably be done with all the books and poems within a few months and will beg for the second year world history program so she can keep reading. For her, a child whose learning comes from what she reads rather than what she does or watches, she and I will talk about, journal, and debate the talking points that are in the teacher’s manual or the ones she comes up with on her own.
But for all three of my gifted children, the biographies, history books, and novels in the curriculum bleed into their play, into the stories they write, into the conversations they have with one another, and into the museum trips they want to take.
A program like BookShark, with its fiction, nonfiction, poetry, discussions, and Instructor’s Guide is a perfect spine for a gifted homeschool family because it allows for the depth and breadth, rabbit trails, and adaptation that an asynchronous gifted child needs most.
A homeschool program for gifted students like BookShark, with its fiction, nonfiction, poetry, discussions, and Instructor’s Guide is a perfect spine for a gifted homeschool family because it allows for the depth and breadth, rabbit trails, and adaptation that an asynchronous gifted child needs most.
And that wiggly, squirmy four-year-old in the library is now a thriving high schooler who often comes along with me when I speak to parents of gifted and twice-exceptional parents who are dipping their toes into the adventures that homeschooling brings. He’ll tell anyone that flexibility and outside-of-the-curricular-box-thinking is what one needs most to make it as a homeschooling gifted child.
Having a child who has been diagnosed with dyslexia can be overwhelming for any parent. For the homeschool mom, it can seem especially intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Since homeschooling offers flexibility and individualized instruction, it is the perfect environment to foster learning for the child with dyslexia.
Children with dyslexia process information differently. Therefore, they must be taught differently, or frustration, stagnation, and feelings of defeat can compound their struggles. To become readers and writers, they need to learn and access information the way their brains process information.
“Dyslexia is a neurological condition caused by a different wiring of the brain. There is no cure for dyslexia and individuals with this condition must learn coping strategies. Research indicates that dyslexia has no relationship to intelligence. Individuals with dyslexia are neither more nor less intelligent than the general population. But some say the way individuals with dyslexia think can actually be an asset in achieving success.”¹
A Multisensory Approach
Research shows that a multisensory approach helps a child with dyslexia learn.
“When taught by a multisensory approach, students have the advantage of learning alphabetic patterns and words with engagement of all learning modalities. Dr. Samuel Terry Orton, one of the first to recognize the syndrome of dyslexia in students, suggested that teaching the fundamentals of phonic association with letterforms, both visually presented and reproduced in writing until the correct associations were built up, would benefit students of all ages.”²
What is a multisensory approach? A child with dyslexia needs information repeated to them in a variety of ways. Therefore, using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile activities helps children learn and later access the information they’ve learned. A multisensory approach is the glue that helps what a child learns to stick to their brain.
A child with dyslexia also needs time and support. They need to learn at their own pace, in small groups or one-on-one. Below are a few strategies and resources to help children with dyslexia find success.
Reading and Spelling Strategies
When teaching letter sounds and how to identify them with their matching symbol, direct instruction works well. You can also use this method to help them learn to count syllables and to understand the six basic syllable types. Teaching about rhyming, base words, roots, and prefixes and suffixes also works well with direct instruction.
Repetition is Key
For a child who has been diagnosed with dyslexia, repetition is of utmost importance. There are multiple ways to incorporate this into daily learning. Children love to play learning games, which lend themselves easily to repetition. Another fun way to teach is by singing songs. This works especially well with younger children. However, older students can also benefit by repeating words, phrases, and facts set to music.
Keeping words with similar spelling patterns together is a simple trick that facilitates learning. Additionally, help your child to compile a list of their most commonly misspelled words. Then encourage them to practice the words regularly. Mix it up by using letter tiles to build words. Or give them some old-fashioned tracing paper to use with pre-printed words. Word search games are also a fun way for your child to learn.
Make use of your read-aloud time by having your child track the words and follow along. This also works with audiobooks. Or get them involved by taking turns reading aloud. Make sure that you read books that interest them. Let them have some fun by using graphic novels and comic books. This helps to break long passages into smaller parts to encourage learning without becoming overwhelmed.
Another creative way to incorporate repetition is to let children draw or write about what they’re reading. They can also make related hands-on projects. These might include making movies, games, or 3D projects that depict scenes from their reading material.
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Implement a variety of strategies while reading. For example, you can pause after a passage, page, or chapter and discuss what they’ve read.
Use different types of questions as teaching tools. Your child can better understand how to make connections when you ask how they relate to the story or its characters. Teach them how to make predictions by asking what they think will happen next in the story. Help them to learn to make comments about a story by asking what they think, like, or dislike about it. And show them how to recognize inferences in a story by asking what they understand even though it isn’t directly stated.
Your child learns to summarize for clarity when you ask them to explain what has happened so far in the story. You can also teach them to visualize by asking what they see in their mind as they listen.
Writing Strategies
As with reading, direct instruction is a good way to teach writing. It helps when learning fine motor skills and letter formation, along with the mechanics of grammar and sentence structure. Additionally, when teaching them how to break ideas into smaller parts, direct instruction is the most effective. They can also learn to organize their ideas using graphic organizers.
Variety of Tools
With young children, practice writing with fun pens, glitter glue, in salt or sand. Also, you can make words out of playdough or trace them in the air.
Typing might be a better solution for older kids. Assistive technology like Dragon,Naturally Speaking, Kurzweil, a Livescribe Smartpen, and Read&Write are good resources for reading, spelling, and writing.
Interest is Key
Let kids choose their topics and genres. Writing assignments that have a purpose and are meaningful to the child will encourage them to practice. Think outside the box. Emails, Minecraft, invitations, and comic books can be creative ways to assign writing. Even submitting reviews and comments on their favorite YouTube videos can allow them to practice writing.
The Writing Process
First of all, teach your child to brainstorm. They can use graphic organizers to plan their ideas and information. Then, they are ready to write their first draft and begin any necessary revisions.Typing can eliminate the frustration of having to re-write drafts over and over.
Help to simplify the proofreading process. Ask kids to look for only one type of error at a time. Teach them to use proofreading sheets and word walls as aids in the writing process.
Help Them Thrive
It is important that a child with dyslexia practices reading and writing in a variety of ways. Because of this, they need daily practice for short periods of time. Use materials and activities that offer a multisensory approach, repetition, and direct instruction.
Furthermore, children with dyslexia need to spend time doing the things they love, feeling success, and letting their brains relax. A child with dyslexia needs to learn differently. As homeschool moms, we can help them thrive by offering the support, strategies, and resources they need.
“Dyslexic kids are creative,outside-the-box thinkers. They have to be, because they don’t see or solve problems the same way other kids do. In school, unfortunately, they are sometimes written off as lazy, unmotivated, rude or even stupid. They aren’t. Making Percy dyslexic was my way of honoring the potential of all the kids I’ve known who have those conditions. It’s not a bad thing to be different. Sometimes, it’s the mark of being very, very talented.” —RickRiordan.com
NOTES
¹“Multisensory Structured Language Teaching Fact Sheet.” International Dyslexia Association | …until Everyone Can Read!, dyslexiaida.org/multisensory-structured-language-teaching-fact-sheet/.
²“Dyslexia At a Glance.” International Dyslexia Association | …until Everyone Can Read!, dyslexiaida.org/dyslexia-at-a-glance/.
About the Author
Kelly left teaching middle and high school English to homeschool her children and reclaim how she and her family spent their time. Followers of interest-led learning, her family’s days rarely look the same, but they tend to include a lot of books, art supplies, and time outside.
Kelly facilitates local writing circles for women and children, leads classes on Outschool, and blogs about nurturing the love of learning on her blog, Curiosity Encouraged. She loves to journal, read memoirs, hike, and travel. She seeks quiet mornings and good coffee daily.
The idea of reading stories aloud to our children is almost as old as the idea of parenthood itself. Long before printed books were available, children learned history, language, and more simply by oral retelling.
Now that many of our children are exposed to technology at a young age, reading stories aloud can seem a bit outdated. But using read-alouds with our children, especially children who have ADHD, can be wonderfully beneficial.
Why Read Aloud to Kids with ADHD
Since children who have ADHD may have problems with executive functioning, they may have trouble processing information and understanding how to use it. If you have a child with auditory processing issues, for example, he or she may not hear speech correctly, process it correctly, or understand how to turn it into action.
And that’s where reading aloud can help. As you read aloud to your children, you may be able to spot auditory processing issues at an early age. You can even use reading aloud to strengthen their auditory processing skills.
Reading aloud also serves another purpose: it can make your children more interested in reading. Since reading requires sustained attention, children who have ADHD may find it difficult to sit still or concentrate long enough to develop a love for reading on their own.
With read-alouds, though, you can make stories fascinating simply by the way you read them. Your children might become fans of certain characters, which could inspire them to seek out and read more books about those characters on their own.
How to Read Aloud to Kids with ADHD
Now, the big question is howdo you read aloud to kids with ADHD? Simple. Bring the book to life as much as you humanly can. Remember, the goal is to keep your kids interested in the story. So do whatever you can to make that happen.
Here are a few tips to try:
Use different voices for each character.
Stand up and act out a scene or two as you read.
Have the kids take turns helping you read a passage.
Dress up in a costume based on one of the characters.
Let your child choose the book you read.
Give your child something soft to fidget with or squeeze as you read.
It’s also helpful to stop every now and then to do a short review of what you’ve read so far and to build interest for what’s to come. Simple questions to ask:
Tell me what happened with (character) in the beginning?
Did you hear what (character) said to (different character)?
What do you think will happen next?
Do you think the story will have a happy ending?
Afterwards, ask your child what he or she liked and didn’t like about the story. Use those answers as a guide for choosing your next novel. Depending on your child’s age, you could do an extension activity such as drawing a picture of an event in the story or writing an alternate ending.
Reading aloud to children who have ADHD can help them develop listening skills, retain information, and learn to love reading. Adding read-aloud books to your homeschooling curriculum is definitely worth the time and the effort.
And who knows? Your child may even end up reading stories aloud to you in return!
Parenting a child with ADHD is difficult. For a mom with ADHD, though, it can feel nearly overwhelming.
There are the typical symptoms of ADHD, which often pose a challenge to a person’s ability to think clearly on demand. But, since parents with ADHD are more likely to have children who also have the disorder, these moms may struggle to manage both their own symptoms and those of their child.
How can moms with ADHD cope with the stresses of their own lives while parenting and homeschooling successfully? These tips for the ADHD mom can help. (Really! I use them!)
Tips for Living as a Mom with ADHD
Do one thing at a time. Multi-tasking is almost impossible for moms with ADHD. Giving each task full attention reduces the likelihood of mistakes and becoming overwhelmed.
Delegate. Moms already have a lot of responsibilities, so it’s easy to become burdened with things to do. Teaching kids to help out around the house can make this load easier to bear.
Be realistic. No mother should have to be a superhero. Being reasonable about the amount of things that can be done each day will help to avoid frustration.
Parenting as a Mom with ADHD
Slow down. Moms with ADHD may experience racing thoughts that can make it difficult to parent with patience. To avoid a meltdown, try to slow down and approach each situation calmly.
Develop a routine. A predictable routine can make it easier to structure the day ahead. Keep things simple by developing a natural rhythm that can be followed by everyone in the family.
Expect the unexpected. Parenting is full of unexpected moments. While a routine is helpful, it cannot predict the events that will arise each day. Ease stress by giving yourself time to manage last-minute needs that kids may have.
Homeschooling as a Mom with ADHD
Focus on the essentials. Some mothers who have ADHD may tend toward hyper-intensive planning. Since homeschooling already requires a fair amount of planning, these mothers may overwhelm themselves with lesson plans, activities, and state objectives. Instead, concentrate on the most important subjects and approach the others with a more relaxed method.
Use a block schedule. Unlike timed schedules, which require that each lesson be completed by a certain time, block schedules consist of time slots for each subject. This routine can be easier for moms with ADHD to follow because it allows for structure without adding the stress of a timed deadline.
Be flexible. No matter how well in advance a lesson is planned, homeschooling parents will always need to make adjustments. If a child dislikes a curriculum or if the lesson doesn’t get completed, learn to be flexible enough to move a lesson to another date or remove it from the plan completely. As long as the objectives are covered each year, the actual method doesn’t really matter.
Living with ADHD will never be easy. Using these tips, though, can make some of the most difficult aspects of life with this disorder manageable for moms. In fact, even moms without ADHD will probably benefit from applying these same survival skills.
About the Author
Selena is a homeschooling graduate and a veteran homeschooling mother of four, including three with ADHD. She and her husband, Jay, use an eclectic homeschooling approach to encourage their children to learn throughout their lives. Selena blogs about her family’s homeschooling adventures every week at Look! We’re Learning!
