Teaching children with disabilities, especial attention disorders such as ADD/ADHD, is difficult. I taught high school special education with a focus on mostly learning disabilities and ADD/ADHD in public schools for 14 years. Now, I’m a homeschooling mom of a child with ADD/ADHD. Homeschooling is daunting enough, but homeschooling a child with ADHD can seem downright overwhelming!
Since I’ve seen both sides of the issue (public school versus homeschooling), I wanted to share with you reasons why you may want to consider homeschooling your child with ADHD. Basically, there are many reasons why you should consider homeschooling if you have a child with ADHD. This perspective comes from my own experience as a high school special education teacher. What you are about to read is all based on true experiences that I had in my 14 years of teaching special education.
1. Your child won’t be “singled out”.
Teachers’ and schools’ work hard to keep students with disabilities (SWD herafter) anonymous. However, students are still identifiable based on classroom locations, testing situations, noticeable classroom accommodations and modifications, etc. Students with ADHD are often “pulled out” of the regular classroom for mandatory remediation, meetings, or testing. Chances are your child will feel “singled out” if he or she is a SWD at a public school.
2. Save yourself the meetings.
I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent of my life sitting in IEP meetings. Or manifestation determination meetings, or senior progress meetings, or transtion meetings. And the list goes on and on and on. And honestly? It was little more than word play and legal documentation. The student and the parent are the only people who really have the power to control a student’s education. Save yourself the hassle and spend this time doing something more productive with your life! As an added bonus, you’ll save a few trees from all the paperwork you’ll never have to get a copy of!
3. You make the decisions.
What a novel concept! This is your child. You and your spouse (and your child as he or she gets older) should be the ones making your child’s educational decisions. Not your child’s health teacher he’ll see for 90 days of his life. Or better yet, his administrator who doesn’t even know your child, unless he is in trouble all the time! Homeschooling a child with ADHD means that you can choose what’s best for him or her. No one will pressure (or coerce) you to accept committee decisions you don’t understand or agree with.
4. Homeschooling means flexibility.
If you decide to homeschool your child with ADHD, you can adapt to your child’s needs as often as they change. That might be frequently, but that’s ok! Your child may learn well with the curriculum or learning style that you initially chose, but you can change it anytime. Teachers can’t just change something they’ve chosen (or been given), and that will hurt your child’s ability to learn. By accommodating to your child’s learning style, you will foster a lifelong interest in learning and finding new passions.
5. Your child can sleep.
It is hard for sleep-deprived children to stay focused. If you homeschool, your child can sleep in and start school when he or she is well-rested and ready (within reason, of course!). Children with ADD/ADHD need structure and shouldn’t sleep in all day, of course. But they also need to get adequate amounts of sleep. According to the CDC, more than half of American middle-school and high-school students (who were not homeschooled) do not get enough sleep. Your child won’t be part of that statistic!
6. Your child can take care of his or her physical needs.
For some reason, taking care of personal needs sure is discouraged in the public school system! Public schools have specific times for eating and drinking and going to the restroom, for the most part. I get it, there’s a lot of students in one building. But being hungry, thirsty, or needing to go to the bathroom during instructional time is largely frowned upon. Unmet physical needs can cause major distractions to children with ADHD. Homeschooling your ADHD child removes this factor out of the equation!
7. Your classroom, your rules.
As the teacher of your own classroom, you control the learning environment. The “classroom” can be outside, in the living room, at the kitchen table, at the zoo, or even in the car if that’s what works! You can decide what to teach, how to teach it, and how often to teach a subject. Also, you can decide if something needs to be revisited, enriched, or skipped altogether. You can choose your own curriculum, electives and extracurricular activities for (and with) your child. Children with ADHD are expected to function in a “one-size-fits-all” classroom. But this rarely ever works, even with provisions laid out according to their IEP’s.
8. Extracurricular activities are Ok.
Often times, children with disabilities are restricted from participating in extracurricular activities. They simply aren’t able to meet the grade or behavior requirements for school clubs, athletics, or organizations. Homeschooling your child with ADHD eliminates these barriers. You can enroll them into activities they show interest in, and watch them flourish! If your child does meet grade and behavior requirements, some states allow homeschool students to participate in interscholastic events with their public schools. You can check your state’s rules here.
9. A low teacher-student ratio.
I can’t necessarily say all homeschool students have one-on-one attention (you know, some families do have more than one child). But I can pretty much guarantee you that a homeschooled child has a much lower teacher-student ratio than that of the average public school student. When I taught, the average Algebra 1 class size was 32 students. Students with ADHD have very little chance of success in classes this large. Working with your child one-on-one allows you to better maintain your child’s ability to focus and help them be successful.
10. No medication battle.
Medication seems to be a battle of almost every publicly-schooled child with ADHD. Teachers push for medication. Students dislike the medication. Parents are exasperated with obtaining the medication. If you homeschool your child with ADHD, will likely not need medication. Nor will you not be pressured to put your child on medication. Many parents admitted to me that they took their children off their medication during extended breaks and summer because they didn’t need it at home. I strongly feel that homeschooling lends itself to the best learning environment for students with ADHD. Therefore, they won’t need medication to help them deal with distractions or keep focus (read here for alternatives to medicating your ADHD child).
11. Your child’s strengths will be encouraged.
So many times, students with ADHD also lack confidence. And why wouldn’t they? They are punished or corrected so often for things that are, quite honestly, beyond their control. Students with ADHD may have a brilliant idea to add to the classroom conversation but are reprimanded for not raising their hand before speaking. They may be super excited about a class project but are scolded for not sitting still. In your house, your child’s creativity and energetic nature will be nurtured, not stifled.
12. No testing stress.
Mandatory statewide standardized testing has become quite ridiculous. As a former teacher, I could go on and on about how testing affected students with ADHD. No matter the accommodations or modifications laid out in their IEPs, testing was always a nightmare. Students with ADHD (focus on the H here) were expected to sit in a sterile, quiet room for however long it took to complete a ridiculously long test. They couldn’t eat, drink, speak, move. So what did they do? Sleep. Yep, that’s how effective the standardized testing system is for students with disabilities. If you homeschool your student with ADHD there will be no need to stress over standardized testing.
13. You can give appropriate structure.
Schools have a set schedule as far as class times, lunch time, and release times. But the amount of structure within each class varies widely! As a collaborative teacher, I’ve been in classes run like a military boot camp (the teacher was an army veteran). I’ve also been in classes where the teacher watched ESPN from the comfort of his desk as students gossiped, texted, and posted on social media. Putting your child in public school is a gamble. You hope that the teachers will implement structure into their classroom, but don’t count on it! And any child with ADHD will not thrive in an unstructured environment. If you homeschool, you can ensure an appropriate amount of structure for your child in your home.
Final Thoughts
If you are still wondering if you should homeschool your child with ADHD, I hope I have given you some points worth pondering. The number one things to remember about homeschooling your child is that no one will love your child the way that you do.
Yes, there are many well-intentioned teachers, counselors, coaches, and administrators working in public schools. But at the end of the day, your child is not theirs. They will not spend the quality time with your child that you will. They will not fight for your child like you will. And you will always be your child’s biggest advocate for an appropriate education.
As a teacher, I saw it so often: students with ADHD spent so much energy trying to comply rather than trying to create! I strongly believe that public school is not a place for many (or most) children with ADHD, my daughter included. If you are considering homeschooling, I encourage you to look into it further, especially if you are having problems with your child’s school. Homeschooling may be the surprising answer that everyone is looking for! Committing to wholeheartedly homeschooling your child will help him or her develop a passion, not a distaste, for lifelong learning.