You see, Kiddo has a new game obsession… Endless Ocean for Wii. It is a good game for her because it is relaxing and 100% non-violent. And she learns a lot about ocean wildlife. But it has triggered the “little professor” in her. The game is all she can talk about and she goes on and on and on about the different animals she sees in the game. It is very hard to get her off the topic.

Another thing that happened… which is more of a frustration… She had invited her friend across the street to come over but he didn’t come. He wasn’t home until hours later. She said that he told her he could come and she was so upset about it. But I have to wonder if he ever even asked his parents. He’s a bit younger than Kiddo. I think there was some miscommunication there somewhere. My husband said he was able to come so I just assumed that everything was good but I guess not. I suppose I should have just made an invitation but I didn’t really think to do that since this wasn’t really a party. It was just a ,”Hey, wanna come over?” kind of thing.

We are gearing up to start another year of homeschooling. I’m not sure how it will go this year though since I am working days now. Will make things hard for me. Will have to catch up on the homeschooling on the weekends and I hate to do that. Guess we’ll see.

There have been times when I really want to get Kiddo back into regular school. She needs more interaction with other kids and it would sure make my life easier now that I work full time during the day but then again… there are so many social issues at school that Kiddo just can’t handle and I really hate to throw her back into that. I don’t know. We will see I guess.

Kiddo is doing well. She has a friend she plays with across the street from time to time. We are still homeschooling as well. We will be starting up the next year very soon. The first year of homeschooling was kind of an experiment in a way. We really had to just get a feel for what we needed to do and how to go about it. This year should be much easier to figure out. We are going to be doing some workbooks just like last year but we are also implementing an online learning program as well. When I get time, I want to sit down and write down ideas for what I want to touch on this year.

History is always my biggest weakness so that is what I have the hardest time with when putting a plan together. We will be studying Abraham Lincoln this year though. Through some research, my aunt has discovered that we could possibly be related to him and that, of course, has sparked a lot of interest in learning more about him so I plan on making a big study unit out of that.

There are also a few more things I want to make units out of and that would be a few things that Kiddo has huge fears about. This will only be done if she is willing though. I’m not going to push it on her but I want to see if I can help her with these fears. One of them is bees. She is literally petrified of bees. If she learns more about them, maybe they won’t be so scary to her. Or maybe they will… I don’t know. Tornadoes and volcanoes are another one. She can’t watch anything on tv about them without going off the deep end about it. We’ll see. I would love to do a unit on the Titanic but I don’t think that one will happen. She used to love the movie (by James Cameron) but somewhere along the line, it scared her and she started having nightmares so I don’t think we will be able to do that one.

I hope to plan some good field trips too this year. It is hard with my work schedule though. I just want this year to be fun.

Homeschooling continues to go well. I’m hoping we can take a few field trips soon. She really wants to go to the zoo and that will fit with our current science topic.

I am so happy I chose to continue homeschooling. She does so much better with it. She is so much more willing to learn and do the work. In the classroom setting, there are too many distractions and too much pressure for her. She just shuts down. This was definitely the right choice for her. I hate that she misses out on a lot of social interaction but then again, a lot of the interaction at school was negative anyway. This is partly because the other kids just don’t accept her because she’s “different” and also it is because she mis-interprets the other kids. She sees certain behaviors as negative even if they really aren’t.

I’m wondering if maybe we can consider taking her off the Celexa for anxiety. I’m afraid to do that just yet since it is so soon after I started my job and things could go sour at any time with her. But most of her anxiety was school related. Now that she is homeschooling… there really isn’t much anxiety at all. She does get frustrated with math still but for the most part, it is easy going because I’m there to help her when she needs it. No pressure. That’s the key. I will be talking to the doctor about stopping the medication after awhile I think.

We are still doing the homeschooling. My job starts next week and I will be working evenings… 2:30 to 11pm or something like that. While it would be so much easier for me to just send Kiddo to school, if I do that, I will never see her so that just isn’t going to work. And she really likes homeschooling because it is so much more relaxed and it is at her own speed rather than everyone else’s. If we have to spend a week on a single math page, that’s what we do. And we can talk about subjects that SHE likes. It makes it more interesting and fun for her. Gotta love that!

Not to say that homeschooling is always fun and easy. It is far from easy. I have a million things on my plate right now so finding time to get it all done and get homeschooling in can be a real challenge. But if it is what will be best for us, then I will suffer with the extra work.

I do have some big news though… Starting Monday, I will be homeschooling Kiddo. This may only be a temporary thing but I’m kind of hoping that it might be permanent. Getting a job has been a problem as well and whether or not I can homeschool permanently will depend mostly on my schedule.

I went to our local teacher store and bought some books to work out of and will be coming up with other things as well. I just needed something to get started with. I finished writing out lesson plans for the first week and am so excited about starting on Monday! Kiddo is looking forward to it as well. While she is never excited about school work, she likes the fact that we can work at our own pace. The pressure is off and she can relax. If it takes us three days to get through a particular math page, then so be it. At least she will have the opportunity to really LEARN it rather than being rushed through whether she understands it or not.

I have looked up the state laws and will be following them. They are pretty simple requirements really. Need to document attendance and hours and I need to keep a portfolio of sample work that Kiddo has done. Won’t be any trouble.

Kiddo is doing ok but is pretty crabby. Understandable I suppose. She’s been bounced around so much. I’m rather crabby myself right now. Just so much stress.

Just wanted to post and say that I am still around. May be a little while longer before I can post regularly again though.

See you soon!

A HUGE thank you goes to Kara for reminding me that there is always the homeschooling option which would give me that time with Kiddo and at the same time, it would relieve a huge amount of stress that she’d be feeling. It would solve a number of problems that she faces with school including work related stress, bullies, etc. I am most definitely going to look into the Missouri laws and see what I need to do. It sure would help a lot. I can’t believe I never even thought about doing this.

I thought about homeschooling here but decided against it only because we were getting ready to move and I didn’t want to get Kiddo used to it when I might have to put her back in public school again. But for some reason, it just never crossed my mind to homeschool during the day and work nights. It does make a lot of sense doesn’t it? Thanks again Kara!

Yesterday was our last appointment with Kiddo’s social worker. I almost cried because I really will miss her. She has been so good with Kiddo and has really helped a lot. She gave Kiddo a gift of colors, paper, and a big bag of Oreo cookie Minis because she remembered that Kiddo loves Oreos. She wanted to give her something fun to do in the car when we move. It was so sweet.

She also gave me some catalogs for specialty items that relate to Asperger’s/Autism, social skills, anxiety, etc. There are books (most of which I’m familiar with) and games. There are several I want to get when we can. That also may coincide with homeschooling too.

I am feeling so much better about all of this now.

I don’t know what to do. Do I turn down the guaranteed job and guaranteed income so I can find a lower paying job with better hours somewhere else? Or do I make us all suffer with it and hope for the best? There is a very slight chance I could get a different job with the company but that isn’t guaranteed. The guy said we would talk about it when the time comes but can’t make any promises of course. I don’t know what to do.