I decided to take my 11 year old daughter hunting this evening. We were using a blind. The thing is she has ADHD and has a real hard time sitting still and not talking. I bought the blind to help shelter minimal movement and had her bring out her DS video game, head phones and a something to read but she still had a hard time. I really want to share the hunting experience with her and she already does archery at school and loves it. Im sure some one out there has the same situation. So any advice would be great.
Jesse, I am a pretty hyperactive guy myself and I have also worked with a lot of kids with ADHD. If you allow your daughter to drink soda I would suggest letting her drink a 8-10 ounce or so Mountain Dew prior to hunting. I know what you are thinking.....why would I add caffeine to my daughter's already hyperactive mind? But, kids who truly have ADHD most of the time respond positively to caffeine, which means they actually calm down after drinking some caffeine. Don't make it a habit of giving her caffeine, but once in awhile when you go hunting, have her drink a bit. I bet it helps bring her down a bit. It also might be something she can use when she gets into highschool and needs to settle down and study. For me, coffee is the ticket. I don't drink much, but if I have to study for 4-5 hours and need to slow my brain down a bit, coffee really helps my brain focus on the things I need to instead of it jumping all over the place. Another thing, if you can have her do some physical activity several hours prior to hunting, that helps release calming chemicals into her body and should slow her down a bit. Just some thoughts and I wish you guys the best.
Appreciate the feed back. Tried with giving her some coffee this morning...against soda and she was buzzing around. Not out of control but what she did do was stay focused enough to fix a keyboard, do the dishes and now she is cleaning her room.. She seems focused but needing something to to. So Im not sure how that would trasfer to sitting in a blind for a few hours. Maybe the caffeine in the coffee was too much for her and should start out with just half. We used instant coffee which isn't as strong. Guess we will see what happens when she crashes from it and maybe give her alittle diet soda...just a little to see if there is a difference
Seems to me you are doing about all you can. Make her comforable, take food, something to read, games, etc. Just go on quick hunts.(2 hrs max)
Good Idea on the quick hunts. I am in the process of trying to find her a good youth bow to get her shooting at home and not just at school. I think the evening hunts are best for her. I also think that if she is able to see deer and if we get busted because of her movement it might instill in her the importance of being still...just a thought
Good luck. I'm a school teacher and deal with 9 & 10 year olds all day long. ADHD can be a challenge but having had it myself (undiagnosed in the 70's) you learn to cope. I honestly never thought I'd be able to sit in a tree stand all day long seeing as I can't sit still for long but I found it so completely opposite to the hectic daily grind that I'm able to just sit there and soak it in. But I'm also not 11 anymore. One suggestion might be to get her off the "screen time". I've found that with my own children, the less screen time they're on, whether it's the iPad, Netflix, my iPhone, or the computer, the more focused they become. The most problematic kids I have at school are the ones that have all of these gadgets and are using them all the time. Good luck and I'm glad to see you're passing on the tradition. My 4 year old is dying to hunt with me and I'll let her sit in my ground blind a little bit this year. Jim
I'd say a heavy dose of scouting and trail cameras are in order. See if you cant find a food source and really try and determine the time, both with scouting and trail cameras, the deer are coming to the food source (easier said than done) and work your hunts around this timing to make them as short as possible. Great job using the ground blind.
Thanks guys. Wish I could use a trail camera but I hunt public land and as well all know some of us out there think that we can just borrow what ever we want out there. I find it sad that the case. Thanks for all the good advice. Im hoping that hunting and bow hunting especially will help to gound her alittle. As for the screen time that seems to be the only thing she can focus on except for cross words and word searches and after a bit she gets board with it. I really think the quick hunts is the way to go to build her up...
