Why are transitions hard?
Kids with ADHD often struggle with executive functioning. This includes managing time, planning, and organizing. They rely on predictability and routine to feel safe. A change in their daily routine increases anxiety until they adapt to the new schedule.
What should you be doing as summer break approaches?
First, recognize that this could be a challenging couple of weeks. Mentally preparing yourself is more than half the battle. Your child may sleep less, act out more, and be more emotional than normal. Keep some extra white space in your schedule to for decompression and extra meltdowns.
End-of-year activities mean that the school routine is being disrupted. As much as possible keep your home routine stable and predictable.
Create visuals to help your child better understand what is going on. We often make paper chains to countdown to a transition. A picture schedule for each day can also help reduce anxiety.
[bctt tweet=”Transitioning from the school routine to the summer can be hard on kids with ADHD. A little planning goes a long way. Read more . . . #parenthacks #adhd” username=”corkboardblog”]
Use Stabilizing Essential Oils to Help with the Transition
Stabilizing essential oils help steady the nerves. In other words, they encourage a person’s feelings and emotions to go from a rocking boat to solid ground. [1]
These oils have the chemistry that stabilizes feelings and mood:
Vetiver
Cedarwood
Sandalwood
Patchouli
Tumeric
Spikenard
Have your child choose one of the stabilizing essential oils to carry around in a personal inhaler. He can sniff it as often as he wants to help calm and ground his emotions. While you’re at it, choose one for yourself, too!
Summer Tips for Kids with ADHD
Summers have a reputation for being fun and carefree. However, kids with ADHD need structure to function well and feel safe. Consider adding simple routines and rituals to your summer. You can create daily routines such as breakfast, playground time, lunch, rest time, dinner, bedtime. Or weekly routines such as library on Mondays, playdates on Tuesdays, swimming on Wednesdays, and so forth. Planning a weekly meal calendar is helpful, too.
Be sure to include plenty of food, water, and sleep in your summer routine. I have to set a timer to make sure we eat and hydrate at least every 2 hours.
Lastly, be sure to schedule breaks for yourself. Have a list of accessible ways you can refill your bucket. Pair up with a friend to watch each other’s kids once a week. Hire a mothers helper. Plan some date nights.
You can’t control how your child will react to the upcoming transition to summer, but you can make sure you’re prepared for whatever comes your way.
Do you have a question about summer or a tip to share?
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References
[1] Hill, David, editor. The DoTERRA Essential Oil Chemistry Handbook. 2nd ed., view.joomag.com/ebooks-doterra-essential-oil-chemistry-handbook/0164882001518721621?short.
]]>Anyway, I once heard my favorite business coach, Amy Walker, suggest that we should only have 6 tasks we wish to accomplish each day. She suggested this would help us have time to PLAY and, more importantly for me, feel satisfied at the end of the day because your to-do list was COMPLETE!
I have attempted to do this in other seasons, but decided to get back on the bandwagon for summer. I’m attempting to time block my days and focus on just 6 things each day. My goal is to feel like I enjoyed summer but also accomplished something.
Each day has a focus:
- Mondays and Wednesdays are doTERRA
- Tuesdays are for school planning
- Thursdays are for blogging-related activities
- Friday are household tasks and catch up
I try to pick tasks for my 6 that are about an hour long. It may be a grouping of tasks like “doTERRA administrative catch up” or “pay bills.”
I’ll be honest. Some days I don’t even get those 6 done, but starting the day with prioritizing my Todoist has been really satisfying even if I don’t get my 6 done.
I’ll be updating how I’m doing with this summer goal periodically on Instagram with #summerof6. Feel free to add your thoughts and photos to that hashtag as well!
Now, if I could just figure out how to tie up those school loose ends and remember to monitor the amount of screen time going on in my house…
What does your summer routine look like?
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With all the chaos during the year and the dynamics of our family, it’s best that we school –albeit modified– through the summer. “Summer School” allows us to focus on things that got lost during the year and keep a routine which is crucial for us. I’m planning to school about 3 days a week.
Here’s what’s in the works for summer:
- Summer Reading. We will continue our weekly library visits. Each week the kids will choose a book at their reading level* in the subject areas of social studies, science, art, and music. Plus, they will choose at least one pleasure book. That’s five books minimum which is one for each finger on a hand. Three days a week, they must be read to above their reading level, read 60 minutes silently at their level, and read aloud below their level. You can download a book log printout that matches this plan here.
- GeoDraw. Geography is one of those memory work areas that falls through the cracks since we do so much review on the road. We are going to make a concerted effort this summer to follow Leigh Bortin’s geography drawing plan as outlined in The Core.
- Progressive Math. Mental math is the strong suite of two of our kids, but they cannot enumerate what they’re doing to save their lives. Both skills are important. Being able to communicate your thought process is really important. Inspired by the way we all practice at Tae Kwon Do (start with the basics together and dismiss lower levels to practice as you work your way up the skill ladder), I developed some Progressive Math Problems. For a limited time you can download them here.
What are you doing this summer? Schooling? Playing? Both?
