I don't spend time in Dance Moms social media, but I watched a couple of old seasons and my main take was "man what an awful salty bitch". But then there's people who are just fangirling on her on Instagram and I'm like... why? What's so compelling about some unpleasant middle aged woman on tv that makes some people just go nuts?
Today my daughter asked me for something wildly unrealistic (for me to go to the bank and ask them for a million dollars so I can open a real life superhero summer camp just for her) and when I tried to tell her that I wouldn't be able to do that for her she decided to tell me I'm the "worst mommy" and that she was going to run away. She then ran to the garage, opened the garage door, and bolted down the street.
Now, I'm no stranger to eloping. It doesn't typically happen at home, rather at school. But running away from home because you're mad at something your parents said you couldn't do, surely this is something that neurotypical kids sometimes do as well. It's not wandering or not looking back for where your parents are, but running because you think your parents are horribly rotten for not giving you what you want.
Do we call this "eloping" when neurotypical kids do it, and if not I wonder why.
I am a 3rd year co-leader volunteer. My other co-leader (who has done most of the year and meeting planning since she was more experienced) has said she never uses the volunteer toolkit and just does all her planning on Google Docs which has been working for us, but I'm so curious about trying to plan using the VTK.
Since she doesn't use it I was thinking of going in there and just playing around to see what its like (plus I can get credit for using the VTK for our Golden Trefoil checklist). But how does that impact other people? Will parents of our troop members start getting emails about meetings planned? Any other reasons I should not use it? I realize that at the National Conference they said they were phasing it out anyways. I just want a planning sandbox to play in without bothering anybody else.
I was helping my kid with a reading worksheet about short and long a sounds, and the worksheet placed the word "drank" in the short a column. I am absolutely flummoxed because I've never heard it sound like it had a short a. The way I say and hear it every day is basically "drain-k" with a softer n. That's totally a long a, right? It sounds like you're just saying the letter "a". I feel like I'm losing my mind and I could think of nowhere other than reddit to go and figure out if I'm truly going crazy or not.
EDIT: I forgot to mention but I'm from the US (live in Oregon and grew up in California so mostly west coast, but grew up with relatives from Oklahoma with their own distinct accents). But the workbook was written by Americans too so I assumed we'd be on the same page.
EDIT 2: My husband and I are literally shouting "DRANK" at each other and haven't come to a consensus. This is so comically frustrating to me.
I am currently looking at schooling alternatives for my 7-year-old daughter, who is autistic and likely ADHD. She attended two different Montessori preschools when she was younger, and recently I had a long conversation with guides from a local Montessori elementary school at a school fair.
Reflecting on all three of these experiences, I realized I’ve had the same persistent concern, and I’m trying to discern if we've just encountered poor execution of the method, or if there is a fundamental mismatch between Montessori pedagogy and her specific neurotype.
When she was in preschool, she really struggled with what felt like a paradox in the environment:
To a 3-year-old, it felt like, "This adult won't let me play." Now at 7, she has more tolerance for adult intervention, but it still completely kills her intrinsic motivation. For example, at the fair the other day, she was fascinated by the binomial cube and was trying to figure it out. But the guide at the booth constantly interjected with, "No, you take them out like this," and "No, you put them back like this." I watched my daughter physically stiffen and immediately lose interest.
As she has grown, I’ve realized her needs are actually the exact inverse of the typical Montessori setup: she does better in with a highly structured, predictable daily schedule and clear goals, but once the goal is set, she needs some freedom to be left alone to figure out the execution in her own way.
For the guides and parents here: Is the heavy, immediate adult redirection we keep encountering a misinterpretation of "following the child," or is this high level of precision inherent to the method? I would love to hear from anyone who has navigated the Montessori environment with twice-exceptional or neurodivergent kids who require structure but minimal intervention once she's started working.
Does anybody else have the experience where if their kid has a really stellar morning regulation-wise then THAT is the day that you'll be getting messages from school about them struggling with regulation, and sometimes even the opposite where if the morning felt like a train wreck you'll hear from the teacher that things were fine?
We had an awesome 24+ hour period, including a zoo field trip yesterday, where I felt like we were really rocking it regulation wise. She even got ready for school earlier than usual today since she wasn't thinking of a million different reasons to avoid going to school. She was excited to show everyone her new dress and things were generally feeling great. It didn't feel like a "seems great, but only because she's masking" thing, but a genuine sense of ease.
And then a little more than an hour into the day I hear about how she's spent most of the morning crying and melting down in the resource room, wanting to go home.
Hopefully I find out more about "what happened?!" but frequently the teachers aren't sure and my daughter is unable or reticent to talk about it herself. But man, sometimes it feels like the best mornings result in the worst day at school, and the worst mornings sometimes result in good days at school. Driving me nuts. I just want my kid to be happy. :(
My daughter pretty much always wears leggings (she doesn't like jeans) but seems to always have a plumbers crack. She doesn't seem to care, and doesn't fix it when teachers tell her to, but apparently kids have noticed and are making mean comments.
At first I thought it was because her leggings were too small since it seemed like they didn't have space for her butt if she bent over, so I sized her up. Now it just seems like the waistband isn't secure enough to keep her pants up. It's not a big deal when she wears dresses since they offer the requisite coverage, but when she chooses a shirt its an issue.
When I'm with her I can usually tell her to "fix her pants!" and she'll do it, but at school she is not listening to the adults (I will say that she generally has a distaste for school, which we're trying to work on, but it probably doesn't help).
What should I do? Anything good to deal with this issue? I hate having to go clothes shopping when money is tight, but the butt needs to be contained.