Practical Strategies

Use this list for ideas, and pick the ones you think might help, or that you can easily do with your life and child, or use them as a springboard for your own ideas. Make changes one at a time, and the easiest first. This list was written specifically for homeschooled kids, but it applies for public school also if you can get cooperation. Tips for other daily tasks are also included, just scan over the ones that don't apply, adapt the ones that don't quite fit, and pick out the bits that might work for you.

1. Remove distractions. Isolate the child if needed for paperwork (not as a punishment). Try ear protection to cut out distracting sounds, or headphones if you use the music trick (below).
2. Cut out unnecessary paperwork. Many books repeat concepts for practice many times. Many children with ADD do not need the practice. Skip it if they already know the concept. Do not make them do practice work just to prove they can still do it. If practice work is needed, they should do it, but stop when they have got the concept. You do not need to produce paper to prove the completion of each concept learned. If you know they know it, it is enough, except for certain circumstances, like learning to take tests, and if you need test results for state education requirements.
3. Do oral reviews instead of written ones when possible. My kids who have trouble writing for whatever reason will read from an instructional textbook, then answer oral quiz questions, rather than write the answer. They can write written answers in one subject, and we keep them short. They work up to longer ones over time.
4. Keep math as fast as possible. Most ADD kids don't have trouble calculating, but they can get lost between writing down the problem and writing down the answer. We use a workbook that they can write in so they don't have to copy problems, and on problems that the instructions say to write down on a separate piece of paper, I have them do only one or two, just to show that they understand how to set up the problem on their own. If they have a need for more than one, stay with them and talk them through, but there is no need to complete every page in the book, or even all of a page. Some of my kids only do about 3 pages per chapter, plus the test. It is all they need to learn it.
5. Assign writing and reading in their field of interest whenever possible (It helps to differentiate between those interests that change frequently, and those that remain consistent, possibly in the background. Choose textbooks from consistent interests, and recreational reading books from transient interests). Science and History have to be somewhat non-negotiable, but the level of the book, and the style of writing can make a big difference. Find something they like whenever possible. Read aloud to them if it helps, and explain as you go.
6. Work with them one-on-one in areas of difficulty, with as few distractions as possible.
7. Build on their strengths. Find what they like to do, and orient other subjects around it if possible. Unit study might help, but don't plan on the unit lasting all year. One to three months at the outside is the longest you can expect a child with ADD to want to totally immerse themselves in a subject area.
8. Use manipulatives. Show me instead of tell me, both for you to explain the concept, and for them to communicate the answer.
9. Try music. I know I said to shut out distractions, but many times, a soft classical music in the background, just loud enough to hear, but not loud enough to dominate can set the mood for more intense concentration of difficult subjects. Classical music stimulates the areas of the brain which deal with logic and order, so this can be helpful for a kid who struggles with math. For some kids, any distraction at all is an irritant, for others, they perform better when there is a low predictable background noise, so you just have to try it. Keep the music soft and gentle, and no words. Make sure you have fun music time later too. Music can also really help with learning difficult concepts if you can find music that teaches the subject.
10. Do it different. As a home educator, you have what the schools do not. You have the flexibility to work with your student to discover how they learn best (and when), so experiment, and do it however you can to get them to learn to be responsible and independent. You have the freedom to explore your child's interests and to direct them in positive ways, without having to worry about keeping the class at the same place in the book. If they soar ahead in one area, go with it. Each of my 7 children requires a different learning plan (an 8th grader with high intelligence and rebelliousness, a 7th grader with learning delays, a 6th grader with pronounced ADD and a brilliant mind, a 3rd grader with a learning delay and ADD, and two Ks with the beginnings of ADD, who are distinctly different in their skills though both are very bright, and a precocious preschooler who will not be left out of anything). I juggle subjects around so I can handle them and so the kids can do them. We do school at the dining room table, with various kids sent off to isolation as needed for certain subjects, and I bounce from one kid to the other from hour to hour and subject to subject depending on who needs the help.
11. Start small, and build up. In areas of great difficulty, start small, with an achievable goal, then slowly work up to a higher one (it takes MONTHS). Often the task begins by just helping the child realize they are capable, and that they can learn to do what is hard. ADD can kill a child's self esteem if it has been undetected for long, leading to depression, and even the best parents can miss it.
12. Learn by doing whenever possible. Workbooks that practice defining rules for reading or grammar are not nearly as effective as just reading and writing with instruction as needed. Both are concepts learned better by feel than by definitions.
13. Keep expectations high, but reasonable. ADD is not a death sentence. It just means you have to adjust your expectations to the child's capabilities. Do not lower the standards, just adjust the time frame in which they must be met, and re-evaluate the way in which they can be met. Objectives should be challenging to the child, but small enough that they can see the payoff (this means breaking up tasks into smaller pieces so they do not get overwhelmed by the size of the task).
14. Remember, they are still just great kids. Hugs are the best form of medication available for a child with ADD.
15. Keep a predictable routine, and teach patterns to repetitive tasks. Keeping a predictable routine helps the child see that it will be worth it to make the effort if the payoffs are always in place. Teach them to always put things in the same place, till they do it without thinking about it. Teach tasks like folding clothes or washing dishes by simple patterns (keep the rules basic and don't be too picky). This way they can learn to do it without thinking, and this is important, because they need to be able to do routine things on "auto-pilot".
16. Don't try to reorganize all of it at once. When we reorganized our schooling for this, we backed off to just reading, writing and math. We evaluated our books, our assignments and our teaching methods, and I discussed all of it with the kids in question when appropriate. Then we added one subject per week (several simple activities sometimes), and evaluated each of those in turn.
17. Explore their changing interests, and encourage them to finish what they start. Encourage them to give reign to their ideas as long as they can also bathe, dress, eat, and do the other work needed. One key to this is keeping interest oriented goals short. The idea is going to be replaced by something else soon so it is important to keep projects short, and help them keep the project focused on completion, otherwise details that they think of may delay their progress so they get distracted by them and never finish.
18. Limit television. This is a key item! It is very important if you have a child who you think may be developing ADD. Television increases the tendency to distractibility, and feeds an already active imagination with more that is unreal and unrelated to life. In my opinion, the more you limit it, the better. Our family does not get cable, and we cannot pick up a signal in our isolated town, so the VCR is our only source for the TV. We go entire days without turning it on, and are happier without it. The imaginative exploits of my children are more productive when they do not watch much. They create useful wood items, art, poetry, clothing, stuffed toys, and fantastic Lego creations, and many other never-before-seen items!
19. These kids must be taught to work. Chores are essential for them to learn to perform unpleasant tasks, and to structure their lives towards caring for themselves. Start small, and work up (so you don't overwhelm them again and make them feel incapable), but at the age of 17, you better know that they can perform all the chores needed to care for themselves adequately. This includes personal care on a regular basis, cooking, cleaning, laundry, putting gas in the car, and remembering to put things away. Making the bed is probably not crucial. Turning off the burner when done cooking is. In order to know they can do it, they have to do it regularly. If they know all this by 17, they have a year to practice with maximum independence before leaving the nest. Make the tasks as simple as possible, for example, laundry goes into two loads, one for light colors, one for dark, and we never change the wash setting unless we need to sterilize something. Everything gets detergent and a cold setting. Maybe clothes won't last quite as long. Maybe stains won't come out quite as well, but the kids can do it, and that is the most important factor here. We don't buy clothes that take dry cleaning, ironing, or special laundry care, because those tasks will be procrastinated or forgotten, and we feel it is better to save our energy for more important things.
20. Keep a sense of humor about all this. A joke about forgetfulness can make the point better than nagging. I just had to tell my son that if he was going to wash the dining room chairs he better get a cleaning rag since the baseball he had in his hand probably wouldn't work very well.
21. Watch your child for "triggers". If my son reads Harry Potter, Star Wars, or certain other types of literature, he gets lost in them. His whole life then revolves around those characters and situations, and he just ceases to have any contact with reality. When he limits his exposure to them, he is much more grounded and functional. He has a range of such triggers, including legos, and other absorbing things. We have completely removed some of them from our home, and have discussed our reasons with him for doing so, and attempted to teach him that when he feels absorbed in something to the extent that it interferes with daily function, and that thing is not going to result in something worthwhile at the end, that he needs to set his own limit. He also gets lost in writing and in graphics work, but we encourage him to discipline himself with those tasks, because they produce something of value. Endlessly reliving Harry Potter doesn't produce anything of value.
22. Video games can make it worse for some kids. They aggravate the centers of the brain that are already aggravated, and they give unreal things as a distraction to reality. Test it... remove them for 1 month, and see if there is a change.
23. Some of the things on this list require major effort from YOU. You have to provide consistent training, which grows with the child's ability to learn the concepts. You have to be willing to accept what they CAN DO at first, and then to gradually increase the challenge over long periods of time.
24. Consistency is the most important aspect of making any changes. Consistency is more important that the speed of progress, the size of the change, or anything else. You must maintain your new rules for a month to know whether they will really work, and during the second week they are going to seem like they don't work... Keep going and they will!
25. Only change one thing at a time. Trust me on this, if you try too much, you'll get lost. More than one thing is too much. One thing, stuck out, guarantees success. More than one thing guarantees fragmentation and loss of focus, and the ability of your child to divide your attention or resist on two fronts instead of one!