Homeschooling ADD Kids

Can you believe it’s Monday again?  Sometimes it comes too quick, don’t you think?

Anyway, it’s time for our Monday unit study.  Last week we focused on memorization by using physical exercise and games.  The weeks before that our unit study had dogs as its theme. 

This time we’re going to study about a topic that interests most kids: dinosaurs!

READ THIS FIRST

If you haven’t used our unit studies before, then first please read our previous post on How to Use Unit Studies on This Blog.

READING & SCIENCE

First, have your child read a story, or part of a story that involves dinosaurs.  If you child cannot read at all yet, then simply read to him.  As I mentioned in the unit study on dogs, we will soon write some blog posts that discuss how to teach a child with ADD how to read.

Sources of books (skip this subsection if you use our unit studies regularly since it will be repeat info for you):

Several weeks ago, I suggested using SwapTree, which is an online community for trading books you that you no longer want for books that you are would like to have.  Since then I’ve traded two of my own books that I didn’t want any more for two books from the Swaptree community.  They arrived in great condition.  You do have to pay shipping cost, which are a little under $3.00.  Plus I had to pay for a box to ship it in at the post office which cost about $1.50.  So it’s not like you can get the books completely free because of shipping costs.  But still, $4.50 for a book is pretty good.  Even used books on Amazon usually cost more than that (although you can qualify for free shipping from Amazon if you order enough books at once, totaling $25.00 or over).  So I think SwapTree is a great option.

If you choose to get a book or use one that you already have,  before starting, read through our post entitled "Tips on Teaching Your ADD Child How to Read Better".

Free online books about dinosaurs:

If you’d rather start reading right away and want access to lots of books completely for free, try these links below.  Which book you choose will depend on the reading level of your child.  Take a look through them and find one that he feels comfortable with.

Tyrone the Horrible (fairly easy reading)

Tyrone and the Swamp Gang (more about the same dinosaur)

The Lost Dinosaur (This link leads to a site where you type in your child’s name and the name of some of his friends, and then their names are included in the book.  It’s kind of cool. If the dinosaur book doesn’t appear as a link, it’s because each week two different books are featured.)

I’m Tyrannosaurus! A Book of Dinosaur Rhymes 

Reading to you:

Have your child read one of the books above (or one you have at home about dinosaurs) out loud for about 15 to 25 minutes, depending on his age and ability to concentrate. As with the books on dogs in the unit studies a few weeks ago, ask him what he liked and didn’t like about that book or the chapter that he read.  Ask him why he thinks the dinosaur or other characters acted the way that they did.

Reading to your child:

Next, read some online information about dinosaurs to your child.  Most of it will be above his reading level, but not necessarily above his level of comprehension.  If you’ve been following our weekly unit studies, you might still be reading The Call of the Wild or another book about dogs.  If so, continue on.  Don’t worry so much about the topic of each unit study that you stop reading a book that you find he is really enjoying.  But also try to dedicate some time to reading information from the sites below to him since it will teach him scientific facts and theories about dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Tracks  (Make sure to click the "next" button at the bottom, right-hand side of the page.)

Short ThinkQuest articles about T-Rex’s, fossils and extinction theories.  Don’t forget to click on the links in the left-hand navigation pane.

BREAK

Take a 10 to 15 minute break.  Try doing some vigorous exercises together like jumping jacks, pushups and jogging in place.  Click here to see why it’s good to take exercise breaks like this.

WRITING & COMPUTER SKILLS

Now have your child use your computer to type a few paragraphs about what he learned in the sites you visited together. 

Show him how to change the size and color of fonts in Microsoft Word or whichever word processing application you use.

Then show him how to save the file, find where he saved it on the computer and reopen it.  Have him do this several times until he can do it easily.

If he is used to using the computer and already knows how to do the above tasks, try teaching him something a little more difficult such as changing the spacing between lines of text and creating a list of numbered or bulleted items.  It’s amazing to me how many young adults know how to send instant messages, e-mail and so forth, but don’t know how to use many useful word processing features.  Teaching him these skills now will make it easier for him to use not only a word processing program, but other computer programs that work in similar ways.  In the future, we’ll have some unit studies devoted to computer use, teaching such skills as graphic editing, audio editing and even a little web page design.

GRAPHS

Teach your child about coordinates on a graph while he plays this Dinosaur Dig game.  You might have to wait for the ad to run before it shows the game.  Also, for some reason it first shows a race car game, then that goes away after a second or two and the dig game appears.

ART

If he enjoys drawing, have him paint a dinosaur online at: Artpad’s Painter.  After he finishes it, you can save it and send it to me at kbroccoli@homeschoolingADDkids.com .  I’ll then put a link to it on one of my upcoming blog posts so all our subscribers and visitors can see it!

JUST FOR FUN

Watch this cool video (below) of a puppet dinosaur that looks very real at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.  If you live near Los Angeles, it would be great to take your kid to see this.  (Very young children might be frightened.)

COMING NEXT WEEK

Next Monday we’ll post Part 2 of the Dinosaurs Unit Study.  Meanwhile, let us know how you enjoyed this week’s lesson.  Also, let me know if you have any ideas on topics for future unit studies.

In: math, reading, science, unit studies | | #