Last week in the newsletter, I mentioned that all of our kids had come home for the weekend - Ron with college homework in tow. While he was taking a break, I read him an article I wrote back when he was in the tenth grade. Read, it, multiply it by four, and you'll understand why I'm able to write stuff like Waking Up from the Homework Nightmare and Focus Pocus! "Did you wash jeans? My Algebra assignments were in my pocket." Sure enough, crumpled up in the trash was a freshly laundered yellow sticky note, with penciled assignments too faded to read. So he pored through the Algebra II … [Read more...]
Three Tips for … Surviving Math Homework – by Alana Morales
October 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Don't let the headline get to you. For some kids, math comes easy to them. Then there are the rest of us. Not to be stereotypical, but math can pose some special difficulties for our ADHD kids. ADHD kids have a tendency to have difficulties with math facts, processing word problems and even following the order of operations. Special skills can help ease these troubles. Here are three tips to help your kids survive and thrive math this year. 1. Make it fun. I know I keep saying this, but make the math fun. Despite common belief, you can make it fun. Let them do math facts online. … [Read more...]
Five Focusing Hints – A Preview
October 18, 2009 By 5 Comments
Here are some of the helpful hints from Focus Pocus - 100 Ways to Help Your Child Pay Attention. 7. For multi-step tasks, have kids pair a task to a finger. If you want your son to pick up the bathroom, empty the trash, feed the dog, then sweep the front porch, have him ‘put’ one task on each of his fingers. Then have him count back to you – as he holds up the first finger, he says, “Pick up the bathroom.” On second finger, he should say, “Empty the trash.” This will help him remind himself, and ensure that he heard you in the first place. 13. Pick your fidgety child to be … [Read more...]
Focus Pocus – 100 Ways to Help Your Child Pay Attention
October 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder all have one thing in common - the inability to sustain and focus attention. But every child - ADHD or not - occasionally has problems staying on task and avoiding distraction. As parents and teachers - we try to conjure up ways to help them focus. As if they were magical spells, we say such things as, “Listen!” “Pay attention!” “Stop daydreaming!” “Think!” “FOCUS!” But the spells rarely work. To complicate things, once we find a trick that works, the magic wears off, and the clock strikes twelve. As a result, we … [Read more...]
How to Learn Math
October 2, 2009 By 1 Comment
The most important concept my boys learned about math was the fact families. Go here to get a template for making fact family cards - with lots of activity ideas. At some point, our kids have to graduate from the rote memorization of math facts to understanding what the numbers and facts represent. A cool book to foster this understanding is The Grapes of Math. (I love the title!) In it, the author asks riddles that make kids use what they know in new ways. One of my absolute favorite resources is called Fun With Figures. This fascinating book will teach your child - and you - to do mental … [Read more...]
