Products for ADHD

Smart Cube Timer. Smart Cubed.

If timing’s everything, this little timer can become very valuable at your house. Take it to wherever the desired task is. 5 minutes of math problems for your daughter? Go! A family cleaning blitz of the playroom? Get ready and go! Use for everything from cooking to homework to quiet time (otherwise known as naps.)

Simply set the timer with your time selection facing up. Get busy until you hear the loud alarm. Set the timer back to zero to silence it.

NOTE: Each color has a different set of times, for example, the purple one has Choose from 5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes and the white has 5, 15, 30 or 60.

And at this price, you may want more than one. Maybe you need one per child or one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Think about how good timing and a Smart Cube Timer could help your family. Teachers, think about how you can use this in your classroom.

A lot of our readers have these timers, and the reviews are really good.

Take a look at the timers here. I’m setting the timer now. You have five minutes. Ready, set…GO!

Purchase your Data Tex time here!

Book Review from a Parent: Survival Guide for ADHD Kids

Today’s post is brought to you courtesy of – you! One of our wonderful readers recommended this book on our Facebook page, and graciously agreed to write a review. What ADHD book – or any ADHD product – do you recommend? Please let us know in the comments below!

For a couple of years now I had been asking myself..”How will I know it’s the right time to talk to my child about her “special” qualities?” I Googled it, asked other people, I read articles and blogs. They all had pretty much the same thing to say….”You’ll know when the time is right”. But, being new to this whole ADHD thing, I wasn’t really confident in myself to believe that. I underestimated myself, and everyone was right…You DO know when it’s time. My moment happened not too long ago.

My daughter came home from school and said someone told her she was weird and others had said she was strange. You see, when she was younger, the other kids never noticed that she was sometimes awkward or different, but as the other kids aged and my daughter got further mentally behind them, it came more noticeable to the other kids and they started picking up on it. I knew it was time to try and explain to her what makes her so unique and special. I scoured the Web for ideas on how, and then I came across the book Get your copy of The Survival Guide for Kids with ADD or ADHD here!. It seemed perfect for us.

It is such an easy read. They can read it alone or you can read it together, which is what my daughter and I do. It’s not to lengthy and has plenty of illustrations in it to keep their attention. It puts ADHD and ADD in “kid-friendly” terms so they can better understand what is going on with them. If any of you are ready to talk to your children about what makes them “unique”, this is a great way to do it! It really shows them that what they have is not a problem at all, just something that is “special” to them and gives strategies to cope, learn, and live with their unique personalities. Such a good read! Is it a “cure all”? Absolutely not. There are always going to be those good days and bad days, but even if you can pick just a few things out of this book together that you can try, it is so worth it! ~Amy~

Get your copy of The Survival Guide for Kids with ADD or ADHD here!

Book Review…The Gift in You by Dr. Caroline Leaf

The Gift in You. I love this book. I can’t stop talking about it – so much of what this author says strikes a chord in me. No intelligence test can truly test your giftedness or your intelligence level.

You are one-of-a-kind: no one else processes information, approaches a problem or thinks exactly like you. You are gifted like no one else! While this is written to help you discover your gift, it will also help you understand the ones you love who have very different gifts.

Dr. Carolyn Leaf has researched the science of thought since 1985, and what she’s found will fascinate you. Here’s an excerpt:

One teacher feeling the strain of his situation said, “Dr. Leaf, you’ve got it all wrong. There’s a child in my class who’s so stupid there’s no way he has a gift.” Well, for once in my life, I was dumbstruck.

Then, one of his colleagues stepped in and countered, “Do you know what, sir?” For a moment, I held my breath because I knew we would soon learn if the material from the seminar was sinking in or if we should duck for cover. Thankfully, this teacher had embraced the core of the importance of living in our gifting. He countered, “That child – that so-called stupid child– can do something that you can’t do.” And it is true.

Each person can do something no one else can do. There’s something each child can do that no one else can do…..Find it in yourself. Find it in your children. Find it in your spouse. Find it in your colleagues at work. Find it, because in it you will also find the truth of God’s living promises.
You were not built to struggle. Your brain is wired to function according to a specific sequence. When you discover that sequence, that structure, you unlock great potential.

I know that ADHD is a gift and a blessing; yet it doesn’t always feel that way. As Winston Churchill once quipped, “If this is a blessing, it is certainly very well disguised.” I recognize that my ADHD child is uniquely gifted. She’s gifted musically, socially, artistically. She can bake and shop and travel halfway around the world all by herself. She’s God’s gift to me.

Oops – I got distracted from the book post and started bragging on my child.

Anyway…check out “The Gift in You“. I’ve got to go hug a kid who has a gift in her!

The PAC-kit – Our Planner for ADHD

We don’t talk a lot about the PAC-kit, but this is the time of year that we should! The PAC-kit is the Planner, Agenda, and Calendar that evolved from our attempts to keep Ron and Joe organized. We always found that store bought planners didn’t work for our guys.

Here’s what would happen.

It’s Tuesday night. Your son has a new $8.95 planner that you just bought because he lost the one he had before. You flip to today’s date. Nothing is written on it. He patiently shows you where he wrote his homework – on the wrong page. Because he couldn’t fit all the words onto the tiny lines, his assignments bleed over into the next day, but are still illegible.

So you call your next door neighbor, whose daughter always has her homework assignments done 15 minutes after she gets home. (Sigh.) You find out that there is a math worksheet, a chapter to read in Social Studies, ten spelling words to use in sentences, and a science activity that needs a pipette.

After a search, you find the math worksheet (what are ordinal numbers, again?) wadded down in the bottom of the bookbag with apple juice soaked into the corner. Your son brought home his science instead of Social Studies book. The list of spelling words is nowhere to be found. Nor is the pipette for the science activity.

Am I close?!

After years of struggling with all of the above, we invented the PAC-kit. Read about our planner for ADHD here!

Top Ten Stocking Stuffers for ADHD Kids – and Adults

We don’t want to steal any of Santa’s magic, but since he’s really busy this time of year, we thought we’d give you a list of things that we’ve found our ADHD kids appreciate finding in their stocking!

1. Fidgets. – These cool things give a child, a teen, or an adult, something to fiddle with – instead of chewing their nails, rocking their chair, twirling their hair, poking the kid in front of them…Here’s a list of fidgets for adhd.

2. Sharpies. Label everything with Sharpies. Water bottles, books (we labeled the outside pages of our boys’ books even if we had to pay a fine!), backpacks, jackets, sports equipment, iPods, keys, and make note cards attractive and fun.

3. Silver Sharpies. Label everything black with Silver Sharpies. Water bottles, books, backpacks…and yes it deserves a listing all by itself.

4. Lanyards. These aren’t exactly fashion statements, but in certain instances, lanyards can save an ADHD kid. Keys, a sharpie, hand sanitizer, flashlight, sunscreen…can you tell we really use ours when traveling?!

5. Post It Notes. I could do a whole post on the usages of post it notes. But for an ADHD child, they are invaluable. Stick one on the back door with a note that BOLDLY says, “DON’T FORGET YOUR SCIENCE PROJECT!”

6. Pens/pencils. They can’t have too many. Joe’s famous lament “ADHD is being able to lose something without moving” was prompted by his loss of a pen. Bless his heart.

7. Gum. Especially mint flavors of gum can help a child focus. Read about that in Focus Pocus, 100 Ways to Help Your Child Pay Attention.

8. Index cards. For notetaking, flashcards, making labels,

9. Timers/apps. You can’t put an app in a stocking, but you can put in this little timer. Timers are an amazing help for ADHD kids.

10. Extras. ADHD kids need an extra set of everything for when they lose things. Toothbrushes, socks, keys, school supplies, Chapstick, contact lens solution…That’s why there’s Amazon. 🙂

PS After we posted this, our kids gave us more ideas for gifts for kids with ADHD.

A Helpful Tool to Foster Independence

At Ketchup, we’ve often recommended the use of a timer to keep your child on task for a set amount of time. This one caught our eye — it looks efficient and should help your family feel that way too.

What’s nice about this particular one is that as time expires, the red disk disappears. These are great when setting up a routine for morning, after school and evening activities. For instance, in the morning it could be set so your child would have an allowed set amount of time for breakfast, dressing and teeth brushing without you reminding her of each step. And, these do not have a loud ticking noise because we know that can be distracting!

You decide the important tasks, timings and a strategic reward for your child’s “beating the clock.” Save your voice and preserve your sanity. Let this timer sound off instead!

Try this Timer today!