Using FIAR with children with ADHD?

[AmyYD]

Hellow :hi: I'm new here, and although I haven't purchased the materials yet, I'm leaning pretty heavily towards doing so.

My son Joshua has ADHD, sensory processing disorder, and is on Feingold; all of which is why we chose to do this first year of homeschooling. What can you tell me about using FIAR with a child like my son? (whose main issue that interferes with school work is the ADHD part of it all). Benefits? Your own experience why it has been a good fit? Adaptations you've had to make to suit your child better?

Thanks for any insight and help you can provide!

[Dar]

Welcome Amy,
My dd has Oppositional Defiance Disorder and some ADD/ADHD(actually I believe autism spectrum disorder but we are working on that.)
I have used FIAR products since we started homeschooling. We have used Before FIAR,FIAR and now Beyond. FIAR has been great for my dd becuase I know how much she can handle and her best way to learn and I have set up our activities as such. Due to FIAR she is an avid reader and retains so much when it interests her. I can honestly say that there has not been one book that we have rowed that my dd said she did not like. In fact we have rowed almost all of the books 3 times. I of course went deeper into the study as she got older,but still in her learning style.
I wrote a post not too long ago where it finally hit me that while I may want to change things we do, or want to add more that FIAR is enough and the best for my dd.What is best for my dd's learning is what is best after all that is why I am homeschooling her.
I am sorry if this is rambling but I hope this helps.
I look forward to getting to know you.

[Esther-Alabama]

My oldest ds is on Feingold, is dyslexic, and does great with FIAR. I have used FIAR with him from Kindergarten on. He is just like most and very interested in being finished with school. Worksheets/workbooks are torture for him, but FIAR is fun. He enjoys reading the books, doing the lessons, and enjoys looking back through his notebook at his work. I think you will find that short lessons with the 3Rs is best and making the most of your FIAR studies will give your distracted little guy a wonderful education.

[AndreaD]

My middle ds is diagnosed with ADHD, and fiar is a perfect fit for him. I can keep the lessons short, simple, and yet he's learning and enjoying learning as well. FIAR works great because it's fun. We read the story, do an activity that goes along with the story-We do a lot of the FIAR orally, rather than writen down, we don't do worksheets or lapbooks (while some people enjoy lapbooking- it's just not up our alley- he doesn't have the patience to cut and paste)

To adapt FIAR to fit Doodle- I try to make sure I have some hands-on activities planned- whether it's an art project (ideas out of the manual) or playing store for math (again- ideas out of the manual) I also aim for variety- sometimes a go-along book, sometimes we'll explore an internet site together, sometimes we'll watch a video on youtube or one from the library, sometimes we'll do something outdoors, usually we'll just stick to the manual for ideas and such- but variety keeps it interesting.

We keep the tablework to a minimum- copywork (I choose a sentence from our FIAR story and use startwrite and make a page with the sentence on it- this helps him listen to the story- because he loves to find his sentence while we are reading) Short and simple math, and explode the code, LOTS of hands-on phonics games.

[AmyYD]

Thanks gals! We have been using Explode the Code and Moving with Math, up until now with good results. But lately he is groaning after writing only 3 words in ETC and after writing 2 math answers. He hates writing! I should have known that was coming.

I definitely need to explore more ideas about fun, short but sweet ways to get him to do a little writing. I like the idea of the sentence for copy work. And maybe if he was writing in conjunction with a story and project it would give him a reason to want to write.

Thanks!