Tips and tricks for helping homeschool kids to focus

Distracted homeschool kids stressing you out or making you doubt your homeschool decision? Helping homeschool kids to focus is not as hard as it might seem.

If you ever stress because you just can’t seem to get your homeschooler to focus, you are not alone. In fact, you are probably more not alone now than ever before in human history.

The truth is homeschoolers have trouble focusing but let’s be honest in today’s society EVERYONE is having trouble focusing.

We are more distracted than ever before.

With cell phones we have non-stop alerts, pop up’s, notifications, calls, texts, social media messages, and more. We have automated front door cameras, video callers, and robotic vacuum cleaners. Really what I am saying is that in our era of super convenience living our list of ways to get distracted is never-ending.

So the distracted homeschooled child is in the same boat as literally billions of other people both child and adult alike.

Why can’t my kid focus?

While I am not a doctor and I can’t give you any medical advice. Before you go looking for a diagnosis like ADHD lets talk about all the reasons why kids actually have a harder time today than ever before.

Food our food today is less nutritious than it used to be. While something as healthy as an apple has only a fraction of the nutrients it did in the 1950s, we are getting less and less support from our food. The use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides has skyrocketed since the 1990s and with it, the rate of kids diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. And while our brains use something like 20% of the fuel for energy yet only weighs 2% of our body weight. That means our brains are energy hogs, and that energy has to come from somewhere.
Electromagnetic Frequencies or EMFs. They surround us like never before. As our world has increased in cell phones and devices, smart TVs, wireless printers, Bluetooth headphones, and Ipads for FaceTiming with Grandma our kids are being bombarded with EMFs that have many, I repeat many, negative side effects and one of those is… You guessed it, having difficulty focusing. So while that new 5G cell tower went in down the road and gave your cell phone a great big boost, it might have had quite the opposite effect on your child’s focusing abilities.
Gut health as science has started to understand in the last decade our gut health is a huge indicator of brain health. With the rise of things like c-section births, medications, more and more vaccines being added to the line up for childhood vaccinations, glyphosate laden foods, and junk foods the kids of today have the worst gut health than any other people in the history of time.
Constant distractions are not just something kids face but everyone. Spent any time out with other adults lately? Next time you take your kids to gymnastics practice, a piano recital or a basketball game look around. You will see a HUGE percentage of people all scrolling on a phone. If our children are unfocused where do you think they are getting the examples from?

While I hear many adults talk about kids like they are just not trying, notice none of what we just talked about has anything to do with the child’s choice to be lazy or put in a lack of effort. Nope, it is simply the cards they were dealt at the times when they came into this world.

No kid is ever at fault for a new 5G tower giving them non stop waves of EMFs making things like sleeping, focusing and healing harder for them. It’s not a child’s fault for not having the brainpower when the government agencies mandate they will need 26 vaccines (filled with a concoction of heavy metals and chemicals known to cause brain and learning issues) by the age of two, that more than 5X what their parents born in the 1980s had to get.

While none of this is your fault and its certainly not their fault but none of these things are really helping homeschool kids to focus.

Homeschooling Challenges

Hopefully, I did my best to show you how kids and focusing is not really a homeschool challenge but a societal challenge right now. However, as a homeschooler, the challenge is yours to remedy not a teacher’s or principal’s.

Admittedly, these challenges seem overwhelming even impossible odds, but I assure you they are not. They are just what they are a challenge for our times. Like the Dirty ’30s had their unique challenges, and the covered wagon days had their own challenges we have ours, focusing challenges.

So while I will agree that homeschooling a distracted, ADHD, Autistic, or Special Needs Child can give them huge advantages over a public school one-size-fits-all mold. Distracted minds are still a real challenge but there are also some great ways to combat this.

Tips and tricks for helping homeschool kids to focus

We have talked about all the reasons homeschoolers or kids (or just people in general) are having a hard time focusing. But I know you’re still asking, How do I get my homeschooler to focus? Let’s talk about some of those easy steps or simple remedies to get the kids to focus.

Consider an EMF blocker. No, you don’t need to up and move to a cabin in the woods and walk away from all tech, that is unless you want to. There are many tools one can use to neutralize those focus-destroying frequencies. I highly recommend Aires Tech and their multitude of options from device protection a super-high-tech that sticks right to your device or area protection that can protect a whole area, say house or schoolroom, for example. If you want to know more or would like a coupon code check out this post here–}}
Avoid sugary carb meals, if at all possible. Think limited cereals or boxed breakfast foods and more real homemade foods. I know homeschool mornings may not be the time you want to make a huge meal, but things like overnight oatmeal with chia seeds and fruit can be a convenient and fast option that’s also much more supporting to mental processes than boxed foods.
Start your homeschool day with meditation. You might be thinking, LADY YOUR CRAZY, if I can’t get my kids to focus for school work there is no way they will sit still for a meditation! I hear you I really do, 3 out of my 5 are very fidgety types. However, we have been making a habit of meditation regularly now for more than two years now and making a habit of it consistently has my children (even a can’t-sit-still 2-year-old) able to sit for a 10-minute meditation with no problem. I can not stress enough that consistency that makes this one come easier. Day one might be hard but by week two you will be thanking me. Youtube has some great guided meditations for kids, and there are even apps (we use Calm) that have great age-appropriate meditations for kids.
Take school outside. While much of our tax dollars goes to putting even more state of the art school buildings, science is actually proving how that won’t help kids succeed. According to Attention Restoration Theory or ART for short, nature, and being out in the sounds smells and overall environment outside our focusing and state of mind will immediately begin to improve. So what does that mean? If science class is going nowhere take a nature walk and look for science out there. If your creative writer has a serious case of writers’ block then head to the backyard, park, or nature trail and let the poetry flow.
Music, if nothing else will work use music. Now not just any music but classical music. Sometimes when we are on the last homeschool task of the day or we saved that subject we like least for the end (math for my oldest daughter or reading for my middle son) then they just need a little push. I have one secret they don’t even know I do, this secret is amazing at helping homeschool kids to focus. I turn on a little classical music for studying, they have no idea why I am doing it but it works like magic. A little Mozart on a quiet but definitely audible level, and in a matter of minutes they are task-focused little students.
Plant power. Yes, you read that right, I found yet another way to toss plants into your life, but that’s because THEY WORK! If you want a little extra trick and you are thinking I need to know how to keep my homeschooler focused. Try diffusing essential oils in the middle of your focus-needed learning session. Rosemary is great at this, it is known for its ability for increasing memory and concentration. Don’t have a diffuser? No problem put a small pot of water on the stove toss in rosemary and any other herbs you like the smell of. I like using a mixture of rosemary, basil, bay, and sage turn that pot on low. Nature’s Ritalin, without all the negative side effects!