rantan
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Biography
Married mom of 2.
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Location
Wisconsin
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Interests
Reading, decorative painting, and flower gardening
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Occupation
part time rural mail carrier
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UGH, i don't know if i can do this!!
rantan replied to rantan's topic in The Learning Challenges Board
I can tell you her strengths and her likes,then maybe some of you can give me some advice or suggestions. She reads well and enjoys reading. Though it's mostly things SHE is interested in reading so i am not so sure manditory reading books would be good for her. She's artistic and creative. She used to draw and doodle all the time, i think mostly to avoid her schoolwork in public school. She can draw pretty good i think, but i'm sure some snotty classmate told her otherwise because she stopped drawing for awhile.:glare: She LOVES animals. She's expressed an interest in Geneology and family history. She also enjoys visiting with the elderly and listening to their stories about how they grew up. She seems more interested in watching historical documentaries than reading it in text books. -
UGH, i don't know if i can do this!!
rantan replied to rantan's topic in The Learning Challenges Board
So should i focus less on testing/grading and more on just getting her to master small lessons? Her family dr. and physciatrist are already against me homeschooling so im sure they are going to grill me on what her grades are. They are on my case about her weight too, though they refuse to admit that her meds might have an effect on that. My heart tells me to not stress over grade levels and expecting her to be a solid 10th grader, but i can't help but worry about her future. -
UGH, i don't know if i can do this!!
rantan replied to rantan's topic in The Learning Challenges Board
She's currently on meds and has been since the age of 10. Our family physician was always the one handling her medication until she reached the age of 14 1/2 and began having panic attacks and feeling suicidal. She's easily overwhelmed by things in life and i don't know how to help her overcome that. She's now under the care of a physciatrist who's official diagnosis of her was Anxiety w/ panic disorder and mild Agoraphobia. She's currently in a therapy class that involves horses (which she loves!) once a week. So i'm hoping these sessions will help in the long run. -
:)That's wonderful!! I don't have a child with dsylexia but it sure is heartwarming to hear positive outcome stories. I really needed that today!
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First year homeschooling a 15yr old girl (turns 16 in October)with anxiety issues. We started yesterday because of some weekend guests over the holiday weekend. I didn't want to bombard her with stuff so we started out slow.Long story short, she was pushed thru a few grade levels by the public school system because she struggled academically and socially, i think they just didn't know what to do with her anymore? Sent her to a Charter school(November 2010-June 2011) where she did really well, but of course because of funding the public school will not pay to send her back this year. So i felt i had no other good option but to homeschool her. I knew in advance that online schooling would be too advanced/fast paced for her and obviously if they put her in grade level (10th) she would be so overwhelmed because of her not really grasping the grade levels before.So i am usuing borrowed cirriculum books from another homeschooling mom to save money. I don't want to spend a fortune on a cirriculum that she won't understand. So far, this borrowed stuff seems to be too much to take in. History chapters are really long and she's not retaining much of the info,etc. Math is her worst subject (and mine!) but i ordered a basic math book thru Walsh Publications for that. So far that is going okay. My dilema is now i don't know what to do for her: Do i try to modify her lessons into smaller ones and ditch the tests for now? She seems to have test anxiety anyway. I'm tempted to just try and teach her basic living skills and maybe supplement history lessons with educational videos from the library.Concentrate on spelling and proper grammar,get her math skills up and add housework,small household repairs,cooking skills, teach her how to bargain shop and get her active physically and find some volunteer work to help transition her into independant living. Just this morning we were trying to do a section in her Wordly Wise workbook and she couldn't remember what half the word definitions were and when answering a short story question she spelled Education as Edjucation.:confused:Not sure if she's just rushing thru things and doesn't care or she really doesn't know how to spell well. I know other homeschoolers feel very adamantly about getting their child the best education and are very driven towards high grades and getting their child off to college. I know that college is just not in the picture for my dd, not even sure tech school is. Honestly i'm not even sure she will be able to hold down a job (mostly because of her anxiety,social anxiety and panic attacks). I'm just so unsure what to do for her!! Sending her back to Public school is out of the question. She was teased and bullied alot. I hope this gets better as the year goes on. It's gonna be a LONG year i think and i'm already frustrated on day 2 and close to tears!
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New here and parent of a child with anxiety.
rantan replied to rantan's topic in The Learning Challenges Board
Mamasheep: i love that comparison to swimming that you wrote in your earlier reply! I think i am going to use that when the physchiatrist brings it up again about her needing to be in public school.;) We had a good pyschiatrist but he left the practice to move out of state, so this recent pyschiatrist we met with was our very first visit with him. It irked me that he would tell me i need to keep her in public school without fully knowing the background of dd's troubles in public school. He asked me " Are you qualified to teach school?". Being put on the spot i wasn't sure what to say, but i sure stewed about it on the ride home!!! Next time he asks me that i am going to reply with " She was sent to a school filled with college educated teachers that knowingly passed her thru each grade without her being able to truely master any of the skills she needed to graduate from each class,therefore, i don't think i can do any worse by her at home!". :tongue_smilie: -
New here and parent of a child with anxiety.
rantan replied to rantan's topic in The Learning Challenges Board
Some good suggestions ladies. I just wished i lived in a larger area with more resources. I live in a small town,population approx.1,300 people. We have to drive atleast 45 minutes one way to the nearest larger city. Sometimes dd's social anxiety involves this town because she is constantly running into kids that used to make fun of her at school. She hasn't left the house much this summer, when she does leave it has to be with someone.UGH, the hardest part is seeing her self esteem so battered that i just want to strangle some of these snotty teen girls that have given her such a hard time in the past!!! Social cliques are big in this small town and if she comes across any teen girl in public that looks(dresses and acts)like these cliques she just seems to shut down and not want to be around them. I try to tell her that outer appearances of teen girls does not necessarily mean they are all the same personality wise,they could be very nice people. Most adults really like dd, they tell me she is such a sweet girl. The charter school teachers said she was a joy to have.Though i am sure that was because they are used to schooling boys-boys with bad attitudes at that. Even the public school nurse whom we have had lots of contact with since dd was diagnosed at 10, really likes her. So i keep telling myself that maybe dd was just cannot relate to teens her age? She does seem better with younger kids and most adults. Maybe if i can just get her thru the teen years, she will do better socially as an adult? I would love to find her a mentor, maybe a girl a year or 2 older than her that can just hang out with her and take her places and boost her confidence. Far as i know there is no program around here like that. I'm trying to find a church to join that would be a good fit for us,with a small youth group. She can't handle large crowds, or lots of noise. She gets really flustered if too many people are talking at the same time or if she feels like she's constantly being interupted while talking. Though for some reason she will interupt others (i'm always trying to break her of that habit!). Kids that talk too loudly or are too hyper gets her flustered too. Teen girl drama,you know the typical gossip, giggling or immature antics or bickering between girls upsets her too and she tries very hard to avoid it. Occasionally she will surprise me (very rarely) by being giggly with a friend and acting like a normal teen, talking about their favorite movie or pop star singers. Then she's back to being so unsure of herself. I worry so much about her future that i lose sleep at night. I joke with my husband that eventually i'm going to need anxiety meds for myself!!! -
New here and parent of a child with anxiety.
rantan replied to rantan's topic in The Learning Challenges Board
Thank you Rebecca, i really need those words of encouragement. Just feeling really overwhelmed lately. My daughter's strengths-she loves to read, she's artistic although she doesn't think she's good at it, she can be creative and seems to like history and poetry. Her weaknesses are math, science. Math is really hard for her and always has been. I myself am not great at Math so teaching her Math skills will be hard for me. She's very empathetic to those with disabilities and really enjoyed the nursing home visits that the Charter school had set up. So i am thinking of contacting a local nursing home to see if she can be a "buddy" for someone there.She loves animals too. I have not bought a formal curriculum just yet. On the suggestion of someone else i have ordered some placement tests to figure out where she is grade level wise. I'm suspecting she might have to go back to 5th-6th grade math. I'm trying to find some homeschooling kids in my area but so far each homeschooling mom i have called, while they are helpful in pointing me where to find cirriculum, i feel like they are guarded about meeting me or having my dd meet their children. I'm not sure why that is? -
How did you diagnose your child with something?
rantan replied to iluvmy4blessings's topic in The Learning Challenges Board
I'm from a small town so for us it was our family physician that referred us to a child physchologist who made the official diagnosis. -
Hello to all. I am new here.This may get long so please bare with me. I'm a mother of 2 children. Brand new to homeschooling. I've never homeschooled before and the idea is really scaring me. I feel i have no other choice but to homeschool this year. My oldest child has graduated already (2010) from public high school. He's a very social kid and is now working full time. I've never had to worry about him and he was self motivated in all his school work. My soon to be 16yr old daughter is the complete opposite. She's been diagnosed at the age of 10 with General Anxiety Disorder. Though i noticed signs very early on that she was different from other kids, but of course i was in deep denial hoping that whatever it was she would outgrow it. She started struggling in school as early as 1st grade, the school district developed an IEP for her. She seemed to skim thru her Elementary years. Middle school i noticed more changes in her. She didn't seem as mature age wise as her peers. Switching classrooms at the ring of a bell was a rough start for her in jr.high. She really started falling behind in her work. Socially she was more withdrawn. Long history of issues with this school district and instead of them really addressing her issues they thought it was best to push her thru to the next grade, for holding her back they felt would hinder her socially. Freshman year started, and i had a child curled up in a ball on my couch each morning just panic stricken at the idea of going to school with high schoolers. I tried tough love and thought if i forced her to go, she would calm down and get used to it. First day there, she vomitted in the nurses office and had to come home. It got to the point that i had to give her a xanax (dr.'s idea) to calm her down enough to attend. The school counselor suggested a later start to the day. She came in at 11:00am for her first class(Art, which she loves). That only worked for a short while, then social issues just pushed her to the point that she told the school nurse she wanted to die. What a nightmare that turned out to be, we almost had to hospitalize her because the school police officer was involved by then. Finally, the school counselor suggested a special charter school that offered counseling for kids with mental health issues(depression, anxiety, bipolar,etc) each morning with academics in the afternoons. She thrived there, got B's on her school work and made friends. The only problem is some of these kids were not good influences, some were forced by juvenile courts to attend there.She was comfortable there because it was usually 10 students or less. She made friends there, but they did not hang out after school (the school frowns on it and frankly i didn't want her to either!) She finished the school year there but our school district called and told me she has to come back to public school (they funded her stay there for academics) and our insurance company would no longer pay for the counseling in the mornings. I'm not going to go thru panic attacks each morning again and i know the school district is not going to make any accomadations for her or give her any special academic support. So here i am, having to homeschool her and i'm worried sick about it. I'm afraid she won't learn the things she needs to learn or that i won't be able to get her to do the work. I'm worried about her socialization. She tends to rely on me alot as companionship. I've never met anyone with a child her age with anxiety, so i feel pretty alone in all this. I want her to have friends her age, but she pulls away from most teen girls/boys because she says she doesn't like the "drama" , but i honestly think she just doesn't know how to approach people. She's sensitive and if she feels the smallest bit of rejection, she gives up and doesn't attempt any more interaction. I'm just beside myself with worry about her future and nobody to vent too. Hubby doesn't want to hear it, would rather avoid it all. Trying to decide what route to take for her, not sure with her anxiety she will ever be able to hold a job? Can't decide if i want to just teach her the basics and go for a GED at age 18 or try to get her up to her grade level and hope that she wants to take Technical college courses. She's just got such low self esteem that i think she gives up too easily. I know that lots of homeschool kids have various ways of socializing, but what do you do with a h.s. child that has social anxieties????????? Forgot to add, she's had many years of therapy with a child physcologist, she now has a pyschiatrist monitoring her meds (we've just started with him and he's already against me homeschooling). She is currently in a weekly therapy program that involves horses(she loves it). Her current diagnosis from this pyschiatrist is -anxiety with panic disorder and mild agoraphobia. Thank you for reading all this, i really hope to get some ideas,input or opinions from you all.:)