Some days you’ve got it. Other days, it’s like trying to herd bubbles with a broom. If you’re raising a child with ADHD, you already know the good days aren’t about keeping them still, they’re about keeping them lit up. That spark can come from unexpected places: a silly game, a different way of holding the pencil, a new sound in the background. The trick isn’t forcing them into a single method; it’s keeping a bag of tricks close enough to grab when you see the window of focus open. And those windows? They can be tiny, so you’ve got to be quick.
Encouragement, not Nagging, Builds Confidence
Set a regular homework time and start with calming routines, like music, to ease into studying. Allow your child to approach tasks at their own pace, whether they pause on challenging words or move ahead quickly. Praise any progress, as each success quietly builds lasting confidence in different areas of their life.
Protecting Time for Connection
You can’t stretch the clock, but you can shape it. Life gets loud and crowded, yet balancing priorities during busy periods means finding the little pauses that are still yours to keep. Ten minutes before bed. The walk from the car to the store. Those slices of time can carry more weight than an hour of distracted togetherness. When a child feels that consistent thread—“you see me, even now”—it softens their edges, making them more open when it’s time to tackle something harder.
Sensory Engagement as a Learning Tool
Sometimes hands need to move before the brain follows. Activities built around tactile bins to channel sensory energy do more than keep little fingers busy, they give the mind something steady to hold onto. Beans scooped from cup to cup can become a math lesson. Clay shapes pressed flat might start a geometry talk. It’s messy, yes, but in the best way; messy in that “we’re building something here” sense, where the table’s covered and the mind is too. Look for ways to make your child’s homework more interactive and tactile.
Turning Lessons Into Games
Give a child a worksheet and you’ll probably get a groan. Turn it into a challenge, though, and suddenly you’ve got buy-in. When parents weave in short game-styled bursts to sustain focus, like beating the clock on five math problems or earning tokens for every new word spelled right, the work starts to feel less like “school” and more like “let’s see if I can do it again.” It’s not just fun for them; it’s easier for you too, because the energy shifts from resistance to curiosity.
Organizing Materials to Reduce Distraction
Picture this: you’re ready to start, but the spelling sheet is in one email, the math pages are buried somewhere else, and by the time you find them, the moment’s gone. For a child with ADHD, that’s not just frustrating, it’s a door slamming shut. Learning how to combine multiple files to one PDF gives you a single, simple packet ready to go. One click, the whole lesson’s in front of them, and you’ve dodged that slow bleed of attention that turns a 20-minute activity into an hour of chasing papers.
The Power of Movement Breaks
You know that glazed look they get? That’s the cue. A quick reset—two spins in the kitchen, a goofy shake-out, 30 seconds of hopping—can be enough to bring them back. Those tiny breaks that spark attention aren’t wasted time; they’re part of the lesson. Movement flips the switch, waking up the brain so the next reading page or puzzle feels fresh instead of heavy. And if you jump in with them? Double the energy, half the resistance.
Everyday Routines as Learning Moments
School isn’t the only classroom. Chopping veggies, sorting laundry, planning a grocery list, these everyday tasks teach planning skills in real life without feeling like homework. Cooking teaches timing and fractions; organizing a messy shelf taps into categorizing and problem-solving. It’s the kind of learning that sneaks up on them, and honestly, on you too. Suddenly, they’re doing more than you thought they could, and you realize the “lesson” was just living life together.
It’s not about perfect systems, it’s about knowing what works right now and being okay if it changes tomorrow. For a child with ADHD, the path isn’t straight, and maybe that’s the point. The more we work with their natural rhythms, the more those rhythms start working for them. And when you step back, you see it wasn’t one big breakthrough; it was a hundred small ones, stitched together into something solid.
Guest article by Cary Maloney, a passionate advocate for inclusive education and the founder of learningdisabilityresource.com, a comprehensive hub for individuals, parents, and educators navigating learning differences. Photo by Pexels.
In-Home Tutors has long specialized in helping students with ADHD excel in school. This focus has led us to create a separate division, HomeworkCoach, designed for students who need help with organization and and executive function skills.
