In a Charlotte Mason education, there is so much emphasis put on paying attention and how important that skill is.

But what do you do when you have a child who has special challenges with paying attention?

We're going to talk about that today.

Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast.

I'm Sonia Schaefer.

Today, joining me is my friend and co-worker, Katie Thacker.

Katie, thanks so much for joining us to share your experience with helping a child who has challenges with pain attention.

Can you share a little bit about your family and the situation you're in? Thank you so much for having me.

I do have two daughters and my youngest one has been diagnosed with ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

And that is not something that would have been around as a diagnosis

in Charlotte's time, but it's something that we've learned a lot about. And the main thing for us

is that her brain does not learn to pay attention the way that a typical child's would. And so

we have found ways that the Charlotte Mason method has been a fantastic fit for her as we have gone through her education.

Let's start with what have you learned about ADHD? I hear that a lot. People talk about it. They say my kid might have it or my kid does have it or what is it?

Okay.

You've done a lot of research into this, so enlighten me here.

So my older daughter was a very high energy little kid and when she was about six, seven years old, she started to mature and calm down and was able to sit still for longer,

the normal types of progressions that you would see. And then with Cora, when she got to be

six, seven, and we were thinking this very, very active child is going to start to calm down.

She got more active. Oh, my. And spent even less time paying attention. It just got to a point

where it was really, really tough for her to control her impulses and things like that. And I was

very hesitant to talk to anybody about that at first. And then there is a whole evening that God

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