Would I have succeeded at home-schooling my hyperactive child who was unable to sit still for any length of time? The answer is a resounding ‘no’ I think. However, I did manage to teach him to read and write and to play Chess and easy pieces on the piano over the 12 years I stayed at home, but to make him sit for regular lessons would have driven the pair of us quite mad.
Parents across the world have had a unique experience, an experience that perhaps only parents in refugee camps and war zones would envy. But didn’t parents always home school children in the millennia before it was assumed all children should go to school? How to hunt mammoths, how to plough the fields and scatter, how to count sheep – yan, tan, tethera. But parents of old would not have had to cope with on line learning, nor would they have been trying to teach rebellious teenagers. Modern parents tearing their hair out in a pandemic may well have thought there’s a lot to be said for sending your eight year old out to work as a lonely goatherd or chimney sweep, or your awkward teenager into service at The Big House. It’s not that long ago that children left school at fourteen; my father’s first job was as a telegram…
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Stevie Turner 
There are always going to be hyperactive kids in schools. Most outgrow this at some point. Instead of trying to keep these kids tied down (not literally), smart educators learn to adapt by giving a child things they can fidget with while not becoming a distraction. For many, it was as simple as getting them an object like putty that they can manipulate. Chess and the piano were also great ideas for your boy because expecting hyperactive children to sit still with traditional schoolwork for more than a few minutes is a recipe for failure.
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Good comment, Pete. Yes, Leon was ‘challenging’ but indeed did grow out of it once puberty struck. Then we couldn’t get the bugger out of bed. Sam had to physically pick him up from his bed, still in his PJ’s, and drive him to school. He got changed on the way and had a drink and snack. God, that kid was a pain in the rear! He became human round about the age of 16 when he left school and started an apprenticeship. When he left home at 20 he phoned me one day to thank me for all I did for him. I’ll never forget that phone call!
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Speaking with parents who have been homeschooling, it seems they had to find a schedule and method that worked for them and their kids. Some kids actually excelled but on their own time. Classroom learning doesn’t work for all students. Like your son, mine did terrible in school, but once out in the adult world, he did very well in his field. By teaching your son chess and the piano, you taught him to think and work things out, a very valuable skill. I do feel for the parents that are struggling with this.
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I tried to increase his concentration level, which was sadly lacking. We did get somewhere in the end, but now the funniest thing is to hear him complaining to his daughters about their lack of organisational skills with regards to schoolwork and getting their bags ready for the next day.
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Such is life, what comes around, goes around!!
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Yep!
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I only taught him the things he was interested in, otherwise it just would not have worked. His actual school career was abysmal, but he started a 4 year engineering apprenticeship when he was 16 and excelled at it and never looked back. Just goes to show that kids will learn when they’re interested in something.
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Thanks Stevie, sounds like you did well to do the piano and teach chess, I don’t play chess so I guess that was never going to work.
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