First day of school here...ugh!

[Angel]

I don't usually post over here, but I'm whooped and felt the need to whine to someone :) Today was our first official day of school. My 13dd has AS and actually has been doing very well. We had discussed our new schedule, numerous times, and had discussed her increased workload and my expectations of her work, numerous times. She likes to have her afternoons free and honestly, she's really mentally done after noon anyway. So I scheduled reading and piano after lunch. We schooled from 8:00 - 12:30. Some things took longer than I thought. She had a meltdown because the WW3000 book 9 was different than the book 7. I had jumped her up a grade because she was doing so well. I don't know WHY they changed the format. Science took her more time than expected and she did not like the schedule I printed from Donna Young. It wasn't specific enough. I explained that they assumed that she would know at what point to stop on page 7. I guess I should know by now to never assume. *sigh* Then we tried our hour quiet time after lunch. This is new and dd was ok with it. She was to do her SL reading and then have her own time. Well, she didn't like the SL book, spent her whole time reading it, didn't finish the assignment and then came the meltdown because she was supposed to unwind from school but now she wasn't relaxed.

Do any of you with aspies get in a good spell and then forget about some of the special things they need? Some of this I should have known would have caused a problem, but I guess that it had been going so well lately (she attended two camps this summer...huge deal...and did well, all things considered) that I thought she could do it. And then there's the problem of deciding what is a discipline problem and what she really can't do/understand. *another sigh*

Thanks for listening. I hope it's ok to share this over here. I'm not sure dh wants to be bombarded with this when he gets home:glare: and he has even more problems trying to decipher what I should just make her do and what she just can't do.

Thanks!

[hmschoolmom22]

didn't want to read this and not respond....:grouphug:to you! I hope it gets better!

[hsmamainva]

I can relate completely!!!

My 14 year old Aspie had a great year last year and I tried to use a high school level curriculum with him this year and it bombed!! I had hoped that he would be able to do 9th grade work because he did so well last year.

Nope!

I realized that he needs more time working through things at a middle school level. So I re-vamped his curriculum completely after the first week and he has new history, science, and math programs.

Today was his first day with some of the new material and he couldn't be happier -- we're waiting for the rest to come in the mail. (Everything is geared toward a 7th-8th grade level).

After talking it over with my hubby, we decided that, if it takes him 6 years to work through high school, that's fine with us. If he chooses to go to college (be it a 4 year one or a community college), they'll take him at 20, just as they would if he was 18.

It took alot of the pressure off of him and me.

I would sit down with your curriculum, and your daughter and hubby and have a little brainstorming session and see what you can come up with.

:grouphug:

[Angel]

Thanks for the :grouphug:

Dd is doing work all over the grade levels. R&S English 7 (boy is this more than I had in high school, though), VideoText Algebra (by her request), Sonlight Core 7 which will use for Lit. She did Lightning Lit last year, but I thought it would be too much this year. Boy am I glad I thought right on that! Apologia Physical Science. Those are the main ones, I think. She does Vocab, Jump In, and the Painless Poetry from SL, but those won't be every day. I was adding Trail Guide to World Geography, Artistic Pursuits and Henle Latin, too. I was thinking that we could take those at a slow pace and she could get some half credits for those 3.

Technically, dd could be an 8th grader. She started school early and won't be 14 until October. I have discussed this with dd and let her know that if high school gets to be too much that we DO have an extra year. It certainly wouldn't hurt her at all. She's not certain she wants to give up her "grade." She was in Christian School through 4th. But she is at least willing to consider it over the next couple years. Dh is not so sure about this. Dd is smart and he sees mostly that, not the struggle with being overwhelmed that I see. Part of the problem is dd just shuts down after so many hours of work. Dh sees that as a "tough, get used to it" problem. I see her getting frustrated if she goes past 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon. She is still getting done by 3 but that is a long day for her.

I am praying that this is just beginning of school uncertainty and it will even out as she gets used to the routine. Plus she is getting up a lot earlier than she has ever before (on her own) so that may have something to do with it. I probably shouldn't have panicked so early, but it IS that time and it is emotionally exhausting some days.

Thanks so much for listening. I really needed to get it out.

Angel

[Paz]

My dd is dyslexic and in 10th grade. Your day sounds like several of our days, too. I call our schooling relaxed classical because we like th idea behind the classical education but I have been trying not to stress about our schedule. Some days dd cannot concentrate very well. This morning she had a meltdown trying to draw bisecting lines in geometry. We stopped, did a little more later and ended for the day. Later this evening when she was feeling a little clearer we did some more. Yesterday she woke up and tried to do some work but couldn't get through it so we skipped school. This year I scheduled most subjects for 4 days only. She will still finish her curriculum but if she has a bad day she can skip a day a week or a few subjects a day and not get behind.

[Greta Lea]

My 14yo son has AS. We have changed a LOT of things this year. Like you, I talked and talked about the changes, but it only helps a little.

For the past five years, we've taken history, science, spanish and art at a homeschool tutorial program. Just being at home and doing everything *at home* was a big change for him.

After 2 years of using BJ for science, we started Apologia General. After 4 years of Story of the World for history and pretty much allowing him to choose most of his literature reading, I switched over to Sonlight Core 100. Also, this is the first year we are using a formal writing program (IEW).

LOTS of changes!!! He didn't have a meltdown over any of the changes, but he did stay very stressed the first week of school. By the end of this week, our 4th week, he was OK with everything and now says he LOVES his new science, history and literature (the one he said he "hated" that first week). Oh, and he LOVES IEW's SWI B. He thought Andrew Pudewa (sp?) was way too goofy at first, but now he really enjoys the dvd lessons. This week he will start his new Spanish program on the computer. He's always taken spanish in a group class, so I'm sure he's not gonna be happy about this even though he knows about it already.

One thing I did that I think helped my ds handle all these changes better was easing into school. We started with just math and literature the first week, added the new history the next week and then the new science and IEW the 3rd week.

Last week, our 4th week, he was not stressed at all. This week will probably bring more stresses since he will start his new Spanish program and we start out homeschool swim-n-gy classes at the YMCA. He's taken these classes for years, but almost every year they have new instructors, which brings stress.