From MonkeyBoy To Hyper Heathen

Well not only has MonkeyBoy now become Hyper Heathen but he also gets his very own blog. I thought about continuing to write on the Sona Creidhe Academy blog but then I realized that with Hyper Heathen its so much more than just homeschooling.

You see, Hyper Heathen has ADHD and as anyone with a child with this knows, it comes with its own set of joys, failures, standards, and learning methods. Sometimes teaching an ADHD child can make you want to pull your hair out and other times it can teach you things you never knew existed. Most times it's pretty awesome though.

We've found out that HH's ADHD comes from me it seems. You see, I have Adult ADD myself and his big sister had ADD as well (which she has now mostly grown out of and which manifested as fidgeting and talking out of turn for her). So part of the fun of this blog will be seeing how the ADD mom and the ADHD child make order out of the chaos!

So HH gets a blog all about him where I will not only talk about homeschooling stuff but also ADHD stuff as well because it's part of who he is. He has been homeschooling basically since he was two years old and I really think that makes alot of difference. He was a clean slate that I could mold and work with. We have always been able to tell the difference between our experience with him and our experiences with the older two children. 

Homeschooling Hyper Heathen is completely different in a lot of ways. We are Eclectic Homeschoolers meaning we learn from several different methods and use what works for us. For HH that is a little Unschooling, some Charlotte Mason, a daily schedule of subjects we're going to cover, some actual book work, using movies and documentaries, verbal learning, and some hands on learning as well through Field Trips and Nature Study.

When I homeschooled the older two kids I tried very hard to do things in a structured way. At first I basically made the rookie mistake of trying to school at home. After awhile I realized that obviously was a bad thing and went through probably every method known to homeschoolers trying to teach Sis  and Big B in a way that kept them interested. Eventually I finally understood that it is important to always do what is best for each child even if at times that means your homeschooling journey with that child ends. It's a lesson I've tried to remember with HH.

So my little MonkeyBoy is now a tween and has graduated to being called Hyper Heathen which is fitting because when he was little he was definitely a little monkey and now he really is my hyperactive heathen child. He is the only one I have to focus on and teach now so I look forward to our journey together. Wish us luck!