imagine.more
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Posts posted by imagine.more
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Well, there are several. Two things that can contribute to body odor are diabetes and kidney disease.
I agree with others, though, I would pull literally everything out of the room, right down to the walls/bare furniture, and then clean it all, including her mattress/curtains/carpet/lampshade/etc. Nothing goes back in until it has been cleaned or inspected and confirmed to be odor free.
FWIW, there could be several small items that were never cleaned properly (lost in the bedroom so never made it to the laundry) that are stuck in a corner somewhere emitting odors. BTDT.
Interesting. She does have diabetes in her birth family. Might be worth having the dr run an A1C on her.
We did recently clear out the entire room when switching kids’ rooms. So I scrubbed everything, rewashed her clothes, aired out the mattress, etc. it smelled fine after all that. But now just 2 weeks later her room is starting to smell bad again already! It’s crazy!
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Is she neurotypical? How is her mood? I would keep an eye out for depression, lethargy, etc, in a nt teen girl who did not want to brush her teeth or wash.
And agree that I would look for physical reasons also. There's really no reason for someone in her midteens, who has been on her period for years, to suddenly start smelling to that extent. Even if she is somewhat careless about personal hygiene, it shouldn't be making her whole room reek. I mean, unless she's a power athlete who refuses to shower, lol.
She’s not quite neurotypical. There’s adhd and overall learning disabilities. I do think she’s been more stressed than usual this year but not to the point of full depression. We are keeping an eye on that though just in case. It’s not so much that she refuses to shower but that she won’t remember/bother unless we remind her. If we remind her she does it happily.
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If her feet smell that bad, she's probably not drinking nearly enough water.
She drinks from her big nalgene water bottle all day (finishes at least one every day) and has a bir of orange juice or milk with no sodas or caffeine so luckily I think we can rule out dehydration.
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As for getting a teenager to improve their hygiene, well that's a whole other ballgame...
I'm still wondering why the shift. May be perfectly normal. Maybe her teenage hormones are just now kicking in. I would still be looking for answers, just in case. Besides building up body odor during the day, does she sweat a lot at night? Could she be building up stink overnight while she sleeps, maybe because of a change in her sleep patterns or a change in the temperature inside the house? Is it possible to get her to shower daily, including her feet, before she goes to bed at night but then maybe also rinse off in the morning? As for her shoes, what type does she normally wear? Does she wear socks? Does she go outside a lot? Is she involved in sports or dance or something along those lines? Did her level of activity change in the last 6 months? Did her diet or level of stress change in the last 6 months?
The big change in the last few months was her trying out public school but that is only since august. She was miserable there and it caused endless stress so she’s home again now. As for shoes she wears flats or boots this time of year. I make her wear socks with all her shoes because that was an issue in the past but she’s pretty good about it now.
She has slowly gained weight again lately. She drinks plenty of water thankfully so she’s not dehydrated. But I have wondered if the weight gain (not insane but she is technically overweight again now) is behind increased smell and/or sweating.
I do have her shower nightly before bed. She complies, she just is so ADHD that she will forget for days on end if not reminded.
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Since the change in being smelly is recent, have you had her checked with her doctor to make sure nothing else is going on besides just being a smelly stubborn teen that hates washing and brushing teeth? I ask because a couple of times in my life (once while I was a teen) I started smelling a lot more than normal and it turned out to be health related issues. Once those were addressed my smelliness returned to normal human smelliness...
Any idea what types of health issues to have them check for? I had thought maybe athletes foot (she got that once before) and had her use the medication for that for awhile but it didn’t help. I’m thinking it might just be hormones? Though she’s had her period for 7 years now so it seems a bit odd that it’s suddenly an issue.
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How do you keep your teen’s room from smelling?! I never had this issue myself as a teen and DD16 did not stink until the last 6-ish months. It’s awful! Like as in it’s affecting the rest of the house bad. Mostly I think her feet are the culprit. I recently tossed out half her shoes because even after cleaning with baking soda, airing out, etc they stunk bad enough to make everyone gag just walking near them. Every item in her closet stinks too though. Her bedding. Everything she touches practically. I have to bug her to brush her teeth so breath is an issue too (brushing teeth has been an issue for 4+ years) and remind her to shower. I even got her nice smelling bath and body stuff, good shampoo, etc to motivate her.
So yeah, right now I just need help getting her room smelling decent enough that it doesn’t seep out into the main living areas :P Any ideas? Magical cleaning products?
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I enjoy the first day pics too but yes it does get a little insane how many you go through this time of year! Anytime anything becomes too overdone I start getting those rebellious urges to do something weird/mocking in turn :P
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Wow, good for you pushing for more testing to get the full picture and a correct diagnosis! I wish doctors listened to mothers more, they usually know when something is wrong.
So will this give you a clearer direction in treatment or expectations for her? Does this negate the high functioning autism diagnosis or simply explain the root cause?
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DS- 8 weeks (10.5 hours)
DS- 12 weeks (11 hours)
DD- 6.5 weeks (8+ hours)
DD- 10 weeks (9+ hours)
These are the times with zero wakings/feedings. With my girls I did a dreamfeed, hence the shorter times, but dropped the dreamfeed around 4-6 months. So they'd sleep 7-10pm, have a quick feed, then slept again 10:30-7am or so. Helped me not be soooo overfull with milk by morning and prevented 5am wake ups.
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Yes, I have. but then I had no choice :P Financially/logistically it just wasn't possible for me to travel up for house hunting more than once. We did facetime so I 'saw' the house but had no clue where it was in relation to other things or details.
It's interesting driving up to a house for the first time 2 hours before closing. But you do what you've got to do. It's not been great but not awful either. The house is fine, we've cleaned it up a lot. Location still stinks but we didn't have any great options closer to town anyway so I don't feel like it was a bad choice.
I figure if you trust a spouse enough to marry them surely they can be trusted to make even major decisions for the family independently in need.
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My teens do it all the time, mostly my 15 yr old. Yes, very annoying. And sometimes, well beyond annoying.
My 15 yo is like this and always has been. Drives. Me. Crazy! I flat out tell her no when she does it, that it's rude.
Besides DD15, I've honestly only had 1-2 baby boomer age people try to parent my kids in front of me. And they're always the super awkward types who seem to lack social skills in general. Like the lady at the mall playground who gave my 18 month old a granola bar without asking me! I was livid. I tried to be polite and explain that he had allergies so couldn't eat it and she kept pushing "oh, it doesn't have peanuts" as if that's the only allergy?! I had to explain that no, he was allergic to soy and casein and bananas and I was 100% sure that granola bar had soy in it, because they all do.
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Old Navy and Cat & Jack at Target. Old Navy even has cute dresses for teens. You do often need to add a cardigan or jean jacket bit with good layers they're very cute!
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We have a similar issue with a 15 yo who is overweight and done growing (puberty was at 9, she topped out on height at 11) and a 9 yo who is very much still growing and thin and active. I hate that I can't tell the 9 yo 'yes' to seconds at dinner without the 15 yo asking for seconds too. If I say 'no' to her I feel like I'm being overly pushy. But if I say yes or even 'if you want' or anything but a firm 'no' she will go get more even if she's not truly hungry. Plus she sits inside all day whereas ds runs around several hours outside.
Honestly, I take chances to give DS extra food whenever DD15 isn't around.
Also, we do tell DD15 she has to do a sport and that helps. When the sport season ends she gains it all back, but at least during the season she'll drop back into a healthy weight range plus I don't feel as worried about a few extra pounds on an active teen vs a completely inactive one, kwim?
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I actually completely agree. Especially with the tiles, why be so strict? I've had trained, certified Orton Gillingham tutors who use similar programs sooooo jealous of my Barton tile board. It really is handy and very well made. Why not let others buy the tiles? Nothing about those could allow someone to plagiarize her curriculum. They're just useful manipulatives. If the true goal is kids learning to read well in the best way possible, I personally would be a lot more generous with my products.
Anyway, on a practical note keep checking ebay, people post just the tiles periodically. Or if it's one of the early levels and you're in a pinch try the All About Reading tiles, they are cheaper quality but cover most of the same phonemes as Barton.
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Why not write them now?? Why are you waiting??
When you let them wait, that shows you agree to want they want. If you try to file a due process complaint, they'll just say you went along with it... You want to flip it and write an email and get it IN WRITING that they are violating the federal timeline and that you DON'T LIKE IT. If you wait until a meeting, you have no written record. You can create papertrail afterward, sure, but it's much easier to do it now. They might skitter a bit and change something.
Good point to get it in writing but to whom? The school website is a joke, no useful contact info besides office phone. The meeting is on Monday though and I've been caught up with job interviews all week so I honestly just didn't have time.
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At the risk of sounding like a broken record -- and you may have answered, but I missed it -- have you had your eligibility meeting and IEP conference yet?
And, if your dd has ID, she may need modifications as well as a accommodations.
You have a lot on your plate! Good luck!
No, that was part of my post earlier, the eligibility meeting isn't until aug 29 and the iep meeting would be within 30 days from that. That's a big part of our problem. I'm actually going to bring notes from our last meeting and nail them on the timeline thing too :)
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What stood out to me in her list of impairments is the profound hearing loss. How is the district addressing this? Is a sped teacher with a credential in deaf/hard of hearing involved in the assessment? It isn't surprising that someone with profound hearing loss has difficulty reading, MERLD, and difficulty sustaining attention. Are you even sure the mild ID label is correct? Did the assessor have experience with kids with profound hearing loss.
Here is a link to the Virgina school for blind and deaf. Maybe contact them?
Yes, we've tried calling the deaf school multiple times. They don't answer or return calls it seems. Plus it's 1.5 hours away so she'd have to live on campus to attend.
And we do doubt the mild ID diagnosis because the assessor was inexperienced with deaf kids. We're planning to have her retested this year, hopefully at Kennedy Krieger which is only a couple hours away.
We have an appointment with the school on Monday to discuss accommodations and that meeting will focus on her hearing impairment and them putting in place the right technology, etc.
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We are also in suburbs near a city. A lot of the good schools are fairly similar, because they actually tend to model new program on nearby ones that have proved successful. Then there are medium schools -- decent for typical kids, but stingy about special needs (even though sn are largely funded through state). And finally, the not very good districts -- to be fair, many of these have a lot on their plates, dealing with challenging populations. Lawsuits help here.
The good schools in our area generally have three streams -- general, contained classroom language based special needs, and contained classroom autism based special needs. But it's pretty fluid, and students are placed in regular classrooms for some subjects if it works for them. Someone with an IEP could be in a regular class, with a shared aide, plus resource room for elementary or a slightly slower pace class for high school. The self contained classes do the same subjects, but adapted curriculum. It's sort of complicated because there are a lot of choices.
Math in high school has a prealgebra option in the general classroom, but differently taught math in the self contained class. It may be called algebra, but if kids need a review of fractions, for example, that will happen. No rushing, very individualized. My dd would get her own custom made homework, not just General hw with half the problems crossed out. :-(
Districts is my state are tiny, so there are a lot of private schools. Most districts do not accommodate kids with severe emotional disturbances or severe autism. And most parents I know love their out of district schools. I have seen shelves of curricula in these schools -- teachers can pick a program to suit an individual student.
Tests for graduation. My advice for op is to read state education department's website thoroughly and keep up with the news. Our state adopted the abysmal travesty known ac PARCC, but it looks as though that may fade away with a new governor. Our family has refused the tests.
Here is link to a profoundly moving video about the Florida alternative assessment. Scroll down and click on the first link.
We're in Virginia so here they have the SOL's (funniest acronym ever for a graduation test). Students have to pass an SOL in Algebra, then an English one in 11th, and I think either a science or history one too. There is no way Ana could pass an Algebra SOL this year as expected and she will never pass an English SOL in my opinion because of her language disorders. Her language is still that of a 2nd grader at 15. She still mixes up subject verb agreement and struggles to write sentences that make sense or identify a verb vs adverb.
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I've asked multiple times for an alternative to the block schedule and they just keep repeating that "she'll do fine" to which I roll my eyes. They really do it for all subjects, even math and language arts. It's crazy!That block schedule would be horrible for my kids as well. I would make a point to discuss that.
Schools here have to offer Extended School Year in the summer for kids who will forget material if they don't keep practicing it. That is just for two or three months in the summer. You are talking about having no math (and no language arts?) from January to August? That's crazy!!
Is it possible that math and language arts are taught year round, and the other courses are on a block schedule? Is there a whole-year math option that they maybe don't talk about much, but they will admit to if you press? They are required to put the child in the Least Restrictive Environment, which schools interpret to mean the general classroom, so they might just present that as the standard option, even if there are some other things they offer to kids who need it.
Do they at least offer a math intervention study hall, so that she would have two periods to work on math?
I get so frustrated about the everyone-does-algebra system. Some kids are just not ready for algebra, and they won't be able to learn the material, so why should they have to sit there in the class? Ugh. (Math disability is one of things we deal with, in case you can't tell).
And I totally agree about the "algebra for everyone in ninth grade" nonsense. They used to offer study hall but no longer so it would be just the regular class.
Oh, and summer school here is only to retake failed courses. They said there was nothing for kids like her who tend to slide over the summer and she isn't even 'allowed' to do summer school until/unless she fails a course, then she can retake that course.
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So we talked with the school starting in May. They assured us they'd use summer to get her all set up. They did do a speech eval and neuropsych testing (cognitive and academic tests with the psychologist and adaptive behavior survey for me to full out). But then they spring on us that we won't get those results until Aug 25th and then an eligibility meeting Aug 29, then an IEP meeting 30 days from there!! Not cool. They did agree to do an SST meeting, like an informal non-binding IEP, on Monday before school starts but still, I am annoyed.
I talked with another homeschool mom whose older son is attending this school and she said they were given a huge run-around too. Also, they apparently have a no-fail policy that they keep secret. No test grade can be below 50% no matter what percentage the student actually got wrong.
I'm debating insisting that she will not start school until an IEP is in place.
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Our Cub Scout and Boy Scout Pack/Troops are not, the cost are the same as I mentioned for our AHG group.
I haven't heard that about Scouts. I much prefer the Boy Scout program over AHG, I'd love for there to be a option for girls, I can't wait until my girls are old enough to join Venturers.
Yeah, I know someone who works for the BSA ;) It's only been discussed openly at a few events but they are discussing what it would mean to have parallel programs, one for boys and one for girls but all under the BSA. So there would be girl dens and boy dens within a pack. One thing being tossed around is how to make that work with older scouts and possibilities for girls to qualify for Eagle Scout.
Personally I'd love that! I see no current options I love for my girls honestly. I'd love something truly comparable. And Eagle is an excellent thing to put on a college application. I'd love for that to be open to boys and girls with the same rigorous requirements to keep it exclusive and meaningful. Venturing is a great program too, that's where I met my husband <3
That's odd some packs/troops are so expensive! Our cub scout packs have always covered dues with fundraising (popcorn) and so we just have registration which is $25 a year. The uniforms are more expensive than I'd like but with 2 boys it works out not so bad as they hold up well between kids.
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We're trying out the local public high school for Ana, 15, 9th grade, this year. However, we're already running into snags.
She's got all sorts of diagnoses, including Mild ID, Profound hearing impairment in both ears, Dyslexia, MERLD, and ADHD. On top of just being adopted and having a few difficulties from the poor upbringing, followed by trauma of separation, and then trying to process all this as a teen.
But the school so far is acting as if all this is no.big.deal. They have put her in Algebra I for math right away. They have a block schedule where each class is just one semester. So she'll have 4 classes this semester, then 4 new ones next semester. Which means theoretically kids could go 6+ months with zero math or english. NOT a good idea for a kid with a memory in the <1st percentile!
She presents as a typical, if naive, teen. She's cute, sweet, and socially adept enough to navigate situations. But all this falls apart if you ask her to do a difficult task or learn anything new.
In particular, her math teacher today at the open house was insisting that she'll pass Algebra I because "we don't fail kids unless they don't show up".....so basically she won't understand but they'll give her a passing grade anyway???? Also, she was all "Oh, the graphing calculator will be no big deal if she has a smart phone!" Except Ana doesn't have a cell phone. She doesn't understand email very well despite me teaching her over and over. She can email now. But Facebook was a bust (she can't even find her friends on there, doesn't understand how to use it, etc), and Instagram was as well (she thought the internet existed on only one computer so created multiple accounts....none of which she knew how to upload a picture to).
How do you make the admin/teachers understand? I try to be positive and I don't like to tell just anyone in real life all of Ana's learning struggles. People know she has dyslexia and memory issues and hearing aids. That's about it. But these teachers need to get that she is not a typical high schooler. And if they just pass her along without her understanding anything it won't help her. This school basically has regular education inclusion, which seem way too high level for her, or an isolated special ed that learns life skills which they say, and I agree, is not appropriate for her.
For those familiar with IEP's, how did you make it clear what your child's disabilities were ahead of time when the school seemed resistant? What kinds of accommodations did you find most helpful?
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You can DIY the Lindamood Bell programs. Especially Visualizing and Verbalizing, the one intended to help with comprehension and hyperlexia. The teacher's manual can be purchased on eBay used. You may want one or two of the workbooks/pictures just for ease of use, but you don't need them at all. And I found the manual interesting and doable to implement for your average bright parent with a college degree.
I also agree that making them read it aloud to slow down can be very helpful! And you can even explain that even very good readers often will read aloud difficult material to help them understand it better. I even find myself doing it when I'm learning something new or reading something particularly tough to grasp. Or if I'm just tired ;)
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Yikes! Boy Scouts is way cheaper than that!
The Boy Scouts are voting this year on whether to make Cub Scouts co-ed and then there'd be a girls and boys track...Scouts for Girls and Scouts for Boys are the names currently being tossed around. Anyway so hopefully if that happens you'd have an alternative option in a year or so that would be much cheaper with fewer fundraising requirements!
Singapore 6 or AoPS Pre-Algebra
in Accelerated Learner Board
Posted
My accelerated 9.5 year old is about to finish up Singapore 5B. He's done 1-5 all along and enjoys it. Math comes pretty intuitively for him (several engineers in the family).
I've heard that Singapore 6 includes a decent amount of review work and also overlaps somewhat with Pre-Algebra concepts. My question is, did you do Singapore 6, Pre-Algebra, Algebra or skip 6 and do Pre-Algebra, Algebra or Singapore 6, Algebra?
I'd especially love to hear from people who used Art of Problem Solving but I'd like to hear from anyone who has gone through Algebra in any program with their accelerated kids too!