A Guide for Parents: Summer Learning Activities for Children with ADHD

The effects of the summer slide hit hard for children with ADHD and learning disabilities who work tirelessly to achieve academic success. To avoid the setback of re-learning previous lessons, it's important to develop a summer learning plan that maintains reading, writing, and mathematical gains.

Reading is crucial, and it's essential to set an example by reading together with your child and visiting the library to explore books that interest them. Graphic novels and comic book compilations are also valuable reading sources. Screen-free reading time is important, and creating a comfortable outdoor space like a hammock is a great idea.

Journaling can be a fun way to maintain focus, writing skills, and record daily activities and interests. Math programs can be difficult to tackle over the summer, so finding interesting and fun online resources with rewards can make it more engaging. Programs like Mathseeds, Miacademy, IXL and Khan Academy are useful for children of all ages.

Local state or national museums or park programs can teach children about nature and science. Fossil dig sites, gem, and mineral mines can also be an exciting and educational excursion. Local reptile trade shows are also an excellent way to spark interest in science, and asking questions can generate curiosity and learning.

Beaches with museums, aquariums, and science centers provide a wealth of information about sea life. Plankton sieves can be used to discover tiny sea creatures and drawing pictures of the findings can serve as a fun family journal activity and improve writing skills.

Catching and identifying different insects and creatures provides for an excellent outdoor activity that encourages learning and discussion. Bigger nets work well for catching frogs and toads, and fine-mesh nets are ideal for minnows and tadpoles. For catching fireflies or salamanders, large, fine-mesh aquarium nets work best. Identifying the creatures and discussing their anatomy and other features leads to a better understanding of science and development.

Check out SciStarter, which will help you find a citizen science project to join. Citizen science projects welcome all participants. And those participants all do the same things to achieve workable data that “helps scientists come to real conclusions. A wide community of scientists and volunteers work together and share data to which the public, as well as scientists, have access.” There are 275 projects your family can do at home or online, and you can match projects to your child’s interest. Older kids may want to transcribe letters by 19th century botanists; younger kids may want to play games and take surveys, or learn to identify frog calls. This is a great thing to do because it helps real scientists collect data, and it’s a great journaling project.

Unless your town descended whole from an alien spacecraft, you’ve got some history going on, and someone is working to preserve it. Find those people — likely in a small, dusty museum or historical society somewhere — and visit them. Have your kids prepare questions (written, so they won’t forget!), which the historians will no doubt delight in answering. Attend battle re-enactments in the vicinity, and learn about the wars they are remembering. Don’t be afraid to buy some merch, either — you’d be amazed how much a Union soldier cap and pistol motivates a kid to learn more about the Civil War! If the Revolution is involved, do what parents nationwide are doing: turn on Hamilton (#CommissionsEarned). Hey, it’s the reason my 8 year old can tell you who exactly stormed the redoubts at Yorktown and why that was important.

Kids with ADHD learn best by doing, right? There are plenty of organizations for that. Check with all the living history people at the battle re-enactments; they might be thrilled to enlist a drummer boy (or girl) and they may even have equipment to lend out. Is your daughter really swooning over colonial dress? Get her some books, a sewing teacher, and a sewing machine, and start taking her to re-enactments. The research on this stuff is meticulous, catalogued, and available on the Internet. You can also contact the Society for Creative Anachronism, whose members love to teach any child over the age of 8 to use a sword. History flows around us all like water, providing so many opportunities to learn — and even more people who want to teach.

Check out poetry from the library. Younger kids will like Shel Silverstein; older kids may like authors like Eliot, Pound, Bishop, Atwood, or even just a collection of modern poetry. Make a practice of reading it out loud to each other. Your kids will roll their eyes at first, and keep rolling them, and roll them some more. But, eventually, they’ll come around — especially if you offer a really great treat for every poem they memorize. One more thing they can write down in their journal — along with illustrations!