Thanks

I'm looking for things for my daughter for 8th grade. We've done classical-ish in the past. This year we switched to Wilostar3D, an online 3d virtual school. It honestly hasn't been good. So, I'm regrouping for next year. I'm considering the Timberdoodle kit. I like the looks of it, the hands-on aspects and the fact that they include the SWB writing book. I'd love to hear what you thought if you've used it.

Anyone?? I'm interested in this too.

Thanks, all. You've helped a lot. She hasn't done a ton of history so I'd like to cover the rest of this year and I'm 6th. After that, she'll take history in 7th at the enrichments center in hopes of moving on to Omnibus in higher years.

I hadn't even thought of that. Is it all online or what?

Thanks, I'll check it out. Online may be nice too, because she'll be going to enrichment classes once a week to cover Literature, Writing/Grammar, Art, Science and one other enrichment class. So I just need history and math.

And if you suggest SOTW, should we add anything to it? She'll be 11 when we do it. We're doing Classical Conversations (she was in private school until October) but we aren't doing it next year. A Child's History of the World by Calvert is also an option. Got any other suggestions? Thanks,

In the past, I've said that's my favorite motto. We laughed about it when my son joined the Marines. Maybe I don't like that motto anymore. lol.

I do appreciate all the conversation and understanding how we all approach things with our kids. I don't really feel that I have to defend myself but I do want to make sure that there wasn't a misunderstanding. My daughter has done cheer for 5 years and has always enjoyed it. She's had her frustrating moments but we all do. Her move to this gym was to try to give her an age appropriate gym for her skill level instead of an older team at her original gym. The new gym was just way intense in the way of conditioning, and a lot of kids can handle that. My daughter couldn't. Her old gym was intense but in a different way. She did fine with that. We've known she's had issues and have been working on those for a while. The issues just spiked at the new gym. Would it have happened anywhere else at this time? Maybe... The doctors say that she's at the age where anxiety peaks. Who knows. If we had left her at her old gym, she may have been fine. Or it may just have exploded at another time. Still not sure on the school front. But... The situation didn't go on long and yes, I did try to let her work through it for a few weeks because that's what the dr said we should do. Was it heartbreaking? Yes. But all of those weeks weren't that bad and she did well some of the time. When it escalated, I took her out. For school, it baffles me because she has loved school since she started in mid 2nd grade. I guess it all hit the fan at the same time. The school could have been better to her/us but they weren't. Maybe I was fried and should have given it more time there to work out but she was in a state and I went into protective mode there too. I guess I just didn't want you all to think that she was pushed for a long time to do something she didn't want to do. As a matter of fact, she says she still wants to cheer as well as go to school. That's what she told the psychologist. So, if and when she's ready we will approach both of those things at whatever pace she wants, with the doctor's guidance. Until then, she is home, calm and safe. Edited to add… if I had my way, she would have been a dancer. lol. That's what I wanted!!

It was definitely promising, thanks! He was a great listener, sounded very promising and my daughter responded really well. We start regular sessions next week, I am hopeful she will be over the bulk of her anxiety before too long. Now, I am not expecting miracles immediately, but he did have good things to say and I'm hoping it won't be a long time. As of now, she is feeling safe and calm without school and that gym in the picture. Once she has learned some coping skills, we will begin to see what she can apply them to and move forward. Thanks again, and I'm glad your daughter is doing better. :)

Thank you for saying that. I have been beating myself up quite a bit over the last 6 weeks or so.

Thank you all for your thoughts and input.

Oh, she is definitely not going back to that gym. It's over there. As of right now she's taking a break and not doing anything. I hate that because she has enjoyed it so much but my big worry is that it carried over into school, and I'm concerned about what else she may withdraw from. She's had anxiety, but this put it through the roof.

My daughter was home schooled until mid 2nd grade. At that time we put her in school because she needed more interactions than I could give her because of taking care of my mom. She wasn't able to get out and do things as much as our older sons had. She did competitive cheer and had a circle of friends that way but she was always extremely shy, emotional, etc. She did great in school, loved it and continued to do her cheer. We got her dx as high functioning ASD in December but she still had no problems at school. Educationally she was great, she didn't melt down at school and actually thrived in the routine and structure. When we told the school, they said there was no need for a 504 because she had no issues. If she ever did, they would work with us right away. This past summer she changed cheer gyms and while she was on a team with her age peers, the gym is very much into "building champions" as they call it. Meaning they work them hard, very hard, with physical conditioning. She would get upset during practice, but a lot of kids would too. One day, in early August, after a two hour practice, as punishment for it not being a good practice, the coach made the girls do 50 burpee / backhandsprings. My daughter made it through exactly 18 and then had a complete meltdown. Other girls were almost throwing up, some were crying, but none like my daughter. From that time on, she would say she had a stomach ace on the way to practice, she would tear up when it started and during conditioning she would cry. She sat out a couple times. For a few weeks, it progressively got worse. She wanted to go, but she was so scared they'd have to condition hard again. Then, they started conditioning at the beginning AND the end of practice. My daughter lost it. She would be fine, but as we were driving there, she'd get nauseous, start breathing funny, and it got the point of her almost hyperventilating. She still wanted to do it, she just couldn't. It all hit the fan the first week of school, along with transitioning to 4th grade, new teacher, new kids… all of which can throw kids with ASD off. At cheer, that week, she couldn't go to practice. I mean, she wanted to, even if she saw they weren't conditioning, she would cry if she started to walk to the floor. She'd watch them, but couldn't bring herself to go. If you tried to force the issue, breakdown. That Saturday, the coach took her out to the floor, was going to let her calm down but she kept losing it, parents complained, she screamed, I sat and cried. I couldn't take it and had to go get her and take her home. She was so upset, she barely slept for days, I mean like 3 hours in 3 days. That Monday, we couldn't get her to go to school, she lost it. Again on Tuesday, she stayed home. We were in contact with the school trying to get them to help us, because remember, they said IF there were any issues that arose at school they would help. Right? Wrong! We tried for 1.5 weeks to get her to school, even to the point of forcing her out of the car and leaving her in a meltdown. The day they said she was being manipulative and would get in trouble if she cried again, we withdrew her. At that point, we needed to focus on getting our daughter back. Meanwhile, cheer…. the owner called the Monday after her big breakdown (the same day she started avoiding school) and told us that our daughter was wanted on the team, they needed her because of her talent and wanted to make her comfortable (they know she has ASD). They offered that she didn't have to condition anymore if that would make her comfortable and able to participate. We talked with my daughter and she said yes, happily! The first practice back the same thing started to happen but she was reminded she didn't have to condition. She made it through 1 practice, barely. After that, she just couldn't get over the fear, anxiety, trauma, I don't know what… but we tried for another week or so, she just can't get past it. So now, our daughter, who had come a long way socially, thrived at school and at her sport, is now back at home… schooling, she withdrew from her activity, is losing touch with her friends and is having a hard time sleeping and just seems very down. We have been seeing a behavioral pediatrician and a psychologist for a while, the psychologist mainly just meets with my husband and me to work on strategies for her. Honestly, I don't think it's been helping much. The first week she avoided school, the behavioral ped put her on Trazodone to help with sleep. It did help but she's still been down and withdrawing more because of (we think anyway) anxiety. They took her off trazodone and she's been on zoloft since Wednesday. Tomorrow we're meeting with another psychologist who deals with anxiety and does CBT. We are having a consultation with him and I'm really hoping this will help her. It breaks my heart that in the last 6 weeks, she has hurt so much. I'd love to hear any thoughts, suggestions, success stories of you or your kids, prayers, anything. I'm truly hoping the zoloft is only temporary as that's kind of the thought process but I just don't know. Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much!

We are dealing with serious anxiety right now with my aspie girl who is 9.5. So much that she has had to stop doing her activity, which is competitive cheer and we had to bring her home from school (she has loved it since she started in 2nd grade). I'd love to hear of experience with CBT. We have an appointment next week for a consultation with a psychologist for cbt with her. She was diagnosed on the spectrum in December and has had some anxiety but it has gotten so much worse in the last 6 weeks or so. I'm a little worried because it's all going to be out of pocket but I can't not do everything possible to help her.

We're bringing our daughter home from school. She loves math and is good at it. I do not love math and am not mathematical. Something that has provided instruction and me being there for support would be great. Suggestions?

What is VHSG?

Thanks, I'll take any suggestions. Lots of the symptoms of ASD fit her to a tee. But, she was also adopted from China at 10 months old. Maybe there are issues from that as well? I feel sad for her a lot of the time, she is so funny and sweet but that does not come across to a lot of people. What comes across is someone who won't speak, or even acknowledge them. And then, people also think she's just a brat.

We've always known she was shy, over emotional, a bit unique but she's also very smart and loving. I've been to worry even more over the last year and some things have just gotten to the point where we need answers. We have tried every discipline and even reward method that we used with our older sons. Nothing seems to work. She is logical but when she melts down she ends up shutting down and things are just not good for a while, like total shutdown. After the fact, she can talk reasonably to us about how she should have handled situations but it doesn't change. So, if there is a problem we need to know so we can help her. If there is not a problem we need to know that too. I'm going to call the pediatrician tomorrow. From there, would a pediatric neurologist be able to do some testing? They would most likely be covered under our insurance. Or would I need to go to a Behavioral Pediatrician or a Neuropsychologist? Both of those would be extremely costly but if we have to make a way, we'll figure it out. Thanks, Angel

Thanks everyone! I went to the BJU meeting, looked at the books, asked lots of questions and placed my order for the online DL set.

It was whatever edition that is on the Christianbook.com website. Thanks for all the replies, they've helped a lot. I'm going to one of the BJU hotel meetings to look at the books tomorrow and probably place my order.

Thanks!

I can't wait to get this for my daughter! My sons grew up with Magic School Bus and loved it.

Thanks for the replies. I shouldn't have asked her opinion, really. I'm checking the link now. And, Ellie, you are probably right.