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I have an active child--well, two to be exact. Both are boys,
imagine that! I've come to think that most boys are just naturally
more active, hands-on, and fast-paced creatures. Even though I've
already changed many of my teaching styles to meet their needs
over the years, I was utterly excited to review How to Get
Your Child off the Refrigerator and on to Learning: Homeschooling
Highly Distractible ADHD, or Just Plain Fidgety Kids.
Carol Barnier has an especially active son for whom she had to
develop teaching strategies in order to homeschool him without
losing her mind and without making him feel like he could never
do anything right. In this book, she shares her many of her strategies
and gives the reader tons of encouragement to embrace the uniqueness
and giftedness of active children.
As the mom, you are challenged to rethink what, when, where, and
how learning should take place. Does your child learn better standing
up? Then let him! Does he enjoy dancing around the room when memorizing
math facts? Then encourage the movement! Does he respond well to
games vs. worksheets? Then add more games to your curriculum!
Ms. Barnier supplies you with practical ideas for gaining your
child's attention and keeping it. She teaches you how to incorporate
manipulatives into workbooks pages, use note cards to spice up
a boring lesson, turn phonics into a game, and much more! Several
of the suggested game templates are included in the back of the
book too. There's even an entire chapter dedicated to keeping your
little ball of energy contained in social situations like field
trips and church.
Chapter titles include:
- Life with the Spirited Child
- The Learning Environment
- Put Motion in Everything You Can!
- Make Many Manipulatives
- There's a Game in There Somewhere
- Phind the Phun in Phonics
- It's Monday Morning, How Do I Teach?
- I Can't Take Him Anywhere!
- What About Spanking?
- See the Gift in This Child
Even with 112 pages, this is a quick and easy book to read. I
found myself ready and able to implement several of the ideas right
away, and I put down the book feeling so encouraged. I especially
appreciated the reminder to see everything about my children as
gifts from God--even the fidgety, whirlwind parts.
Product review by Cindy West, The Old
Schoolhouse® Magazine,
LLC, August 2010
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