limudei kodesh 6th grade

I thought it would be interesting for Elazar to go through a bit of the Torah portion for Rosh Hashana.

Let this be a lesson to you all.  I tried to do too much. 

Pretty much anything you can think of is too much for a kid with ADHD. 

I had already trimmed down my expectations.  Instead of all the themes of Rosh Hashana and the Shemona Esrei of Rosh Hashana, I figured we'll just do some of the Torah Reading.

I wanted to lein the pesukim to him since he's musically inclined, but since I'm not fluent, I knew my stumbling over it slowly would make him antsy, so I decided to read it swiftly.

I wanted to ask him to contribute to translation, but I knew that would make him antsy, so I decided to translate.

He got through the first aliyah (4 pesukim).  We should have stopped there.  I wanted to do 2 aliyot each day and cover both readings in a week.  He didn't make it.  He squirmed on my lap, falling off of it a few times and mostly lying perpendicular to me with his legs straight out.  He lost track of what I was saying.  He stopped listening.

I think my mistake was tying it too closely to the pesukim.  He can handle looking at maybe one or two pesukim closely at a time without a break.  I can either have him think closely about the text of the pasuk, or I can use the five minutes to engage him conceptually, and maybe have a conversation.  I believe that conceptually and mentally he's ready now and sophisticated enough to think about certain ideas. 

Maybe it's the wrong approach to tie it to the pesukim. 

I've been thinking about teaching the akeida to him (2nd day Rosh Hashana leining).  I feel like he'll find it interesting to think about. 

On the other hand, I have been startled before with how unsettled my kids have been about the emotional implications of God telling a parent to kill his child.  When they didn't learn the story in nursery school, it's a bit shocking.  Sticking with the story of Hagar and the angel is probably a safer choice.  We can discuss the akeida in the future.

So I will try again tomorrow.  As much as it's difficult for him to sit, if I try to make the session shorter (shorter than 3 minutes, apparently) and make it a little more discussion oriented, I think he will feel good about being asked if he wants to learn.  I am demonstrating that I think he's of an age where he is mature enough to sit for a few minutes and learn Torah.

And if he says he's not interested, no harm done.