Help this Mamma out please. Exams start tomorrow and neither have started to study! 🤔 As a Mom who detests exams for so many reasons, (mostly because I think they serve little purpose when we're forcing it on our kids under the disguise of learning, but that's a rant for a different day... ) I am also fully aware of the more important lessons that this season can teach us... Both my kids are neurodiverse - my 16 year old has ADHD and dyslexia and my 13 year old has ADHD, is 'gifted' and has many of the learning difficulties that comes with that specific diagnosis. As you can imagine exams are a mess in our home (we know neurodiversity is hereditary so things like routine, getting started and having all their notes in a file rather than scrunched up in the bottom of their bags) is a very real thing..... So... my question is this: Even though I don't care much about the exams, I do very much care about equipping my kids with the tools and systems that they will need for the rest of their lives to work WITH their neurodiversity to unlock their strengths and super powers while still managing the struggles and challenges that ND adds to the equation. I managed / masked my AuDHD all my life, and then perimenopause hit... and it's only been in the last 18 months or so that I've come to terms with what always feeling different, not good enough, always trying to prove myself and being so hard on myself for all the things I do badly (leaving everything to the very last minute, exploding after 9pm when my sensory bucket is saying it cant cope with another thing, overthinking everything and not finishing things). I want my kids to be aware of their hurdles, know what to work on, know what to outsource, and know that they bring so many of the skills the world needs right now. (problem solving, thinking out the box, empathy, hyperfocus etc) So.... back to the exams.... any suggestions as to how we turn this fortnight into a learning experience? And yes, they will buckle down and study, generally the night before when the adrenaline is pumping with the deadline....

Someone's driving through the Outback in Australia. Farm after farm, all of them fenced - high, tight, everything built to keep the sheep in. And then he passes a farm with no fences at all. Nothing. He thinks, how does this even work? So he knocks on the door and asks the farmer: "Everyone here has fences - how do you keep your sheep?" And the farmer says, "I don't need fences. I just sink more wells." Because the sheep are smart enough to know - out there, you don't wander far from your water. So when we want kids to show up - for music, for reading, for anything - our instinct is to build a fence. Make it compulsory. More rules and control. But you can't fence a child into loving something. The wells are a completely different question, and rather than asking "how do we make them join?", we ask "what would make them want to participate?" The wells are the good stuff. It's belonging, purpose. It's more choice, deeper relationships, being seen, and more autonomy. Give a child that... and you won't need as many fences. You won't be able to keep them away. Maybe it's a game you offer, maybe it's just connecting before correcting. Maybe it's more questions and less lecturing? I don't have the answers, but perhaps we tried less fencing them in, and more sinking of wells. 💛 Let us know if you have any ideas?

Tell us a little about yourself: 👋 Your name and where you’re from. 🏡 Are you a parent, teacher, school leader - or a bit of everything? ❤️ What’s one thing you absolutely love about today’s children? 🤔 What’s one thing about parenting or teaching that you're struggling with. 🌱 What’s one hope you have for your child (or the children you work with) over the next 10 years? ✨ Finally… tea or coffee? Then spend 2 minutes welcoming two other members. Communities grow through conversations. I'll go first 👇🏼