Looking for Encouragement

If you were diagnosed as 2E later in life, what were some clues that the challenges you were facing were more than asynchronous development? Or the asynchronous development was enough to cause support needs as an adult? Or that you were burning yourself out compensating for deficits? When did it get bad enough to seek help? If you had cognitive testing did you see a big point spread or spiky scores beyond the usual gifted spikiness?

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u/ihatedarkroast — 9 days ago

How does Prodigy calibrate to match your grade level?

So, last year in 2nd grade, my son got hooked on Prodigy math. I bought him a membership so he can play at home. So far he has mastered 92 skills. He is usually around 96% correct in a given month. On grade 3 he's 100% correct.

But the school tested him and said he was actually at a 4th or 5th grade math level halfway through 2nd grade. (He taught himself watching youtube videos of Numberblocks).

Prodigy still has him at grade level 2. The algorithm has only given him 11 grade 3 questions, on which he got 100% correct. Why isn't the algorithm calibrating upward to match his proficiency level? Should I go ahead and override him up to grade 3? Or just let him keep answering questions and let the teacher switch him over when he starts 3rd? (not sure if they will accelerate or skip 3rd for 4th at school but they might). Is this game really too slow for gifted kids? He really likes it tho. I'm afraid if it suddenly gets harder he will get frustrated and quit.

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u/ihatedarkroast — 27 days ago

Gratitude and Patience

I need some encouragement from other parents. And I need to vent. When did your kids start learning gratitude more? When did you see them start to be more patient without having a melt down? When does being super irrational start to shift? Does it ever shift?

I am really struggling today to be patient with my AuDHD son who his turning 8 years old tomorrow. We are taking him, his sister, and 2 friends to the trampoline park to jump--which is a lifelong dream of his he has never done before. We are having a sleepover with his favorite friend and with frozen pizzas for dinner. We are having a Minecraft themed cookout/splash birthday party with other kids coming on Wednesday to eat hamburgers and hotdogs and play in the little 10' above ground pool I bought them. He asked me to bake him a cake from scratch that looks like the one in Minecraft. Cool. I'm happy to do all that. He also wants a pet gecko. Ok, having a pet to care for is good for a kid, I can a tank on Facebook Marketplace so let's do it.

I'm feeling very stressed and rushed between buying presents, (he is getting a new Minecraft backpack for school and some legos) baking, cleaning the house, hosting a party, and we're stretched financially because...We have to drive 12 hrs to New York to stay 4 days and go to a family funeral as well, pay for a house sitter, (plus a lot of other life events going on the next couple weeks and I just had a car repair ugh). So I told him we have to put off buying the pet gecko until after we come back from NY. He is sobbing on the sofa inconsolable over having to wait an extra week to pick out his pet lizard. I have talked to him about this the other day too--same reaction.

While in NY, we are going to take the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty, going to the American Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs and going to Teddy Roosevelt's house to see all the cool stuff there, all things he and his sis have never experienced before but my parents did for me and my brother. And going out to eat at nice restaurants with family members who have never met my kids because we haven't visited in so long.

In other words, these two weeks are going to be the most incredible week for him. It's going to be like having 3 birthdays. Growing up, my birthdays were relatively simple and low budget, and this kid just has no idea.

I know that he has issues with cognitive flexibility, that he really has problems with anything that isn't "immediate" and having to wait, that he is self-focused and hyperfixated on getting a lizard as it's his current special interest topic he talks about night and day. I know he's emotionally developmentally delayed to more the level of a 5 year old. He's getting OT help with all this stuff. It's all in his goals. And I can't blame him for being this way. It's not his fault. He's growing differently. I'm just fed up right now and have to tell someone who understands.

I've tried talking him through the emotions. I've tried explaining to him about how it's ok to wait for things we really want, that baby geckos need to have someone feed them twice a day and we need to be home for that. I'm trying to be super patient and not chew him out for having a stinky ungrateful attitude. But I'm so frustrated and ashamed at how spoiled he acts and how unaware of other people's sacrifice or the fact that a family member passed away and others are sad, or how much money we're spending and trouble we're going to for his birthday. He's just a kid and I don't even want him to think about grown up stuff like that. And the fact that I want him to know also makes me feel ashamed of myself. His tantrum is already over now and he's back to being happy. But I know the topic is going to come up again and he's gonna have another meltdown about it. I just need to pull myself together so I'm prepared to talk to him the right way and not blow my top when it does. Any advice or encouragement is appreciated. I'm sorry this was a terribly long post.

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u/ihatedarkroast — 2 months ago

Need Feedback/Advice on Selling Trailer

Hi. I'm selling our family's food trailer and listing on places like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. It's an older 8' X 16' (like 20 years old but steel not aluminum). We put a lot of money into it. We've sold off the best equipment (large espresso machine, Belshaw donut robot, Zumex Juicer etc.) But I'm having difficulty selling the trailer itself with or without remaining equipment. I have it listed for $20,000 without equipment. Just dropped it to $19k. Willing to negotiate if people take some equipment too. We have gotten offers for $15,000. But that would be a massive loss compared to what we spent on the wiring, plumbing, hood vent, levelling system, propane (tanks still have gas in them). etc.

I don't even know how to deal with how emotionally frustrating this is. Am I getting lowballed? Or is this really all we can expect and just write off the whole darn thing? This is a large bit of my aging parent's next egg. If it were my personal money, I'd care a lot less. But I'm trying to do the right thing by them.

The types of buyers I'm attracting seem to be

  1. needing a small bakery or concessions trailer that our trailer is overequipped for or
  2. needing a massive 20' pizza truck with double or triple hood vent or large BBQ setup
  3. totally new-to-food service and have zero idea about health/fire regs, how to buy and put in their own equipment

Do I need better pictures? Am I posting in the wrong place? Am I just sucky at negotiating? Or is this just what's out there how it is??

u/ihatedarkroast — 2 months ago
▲ 18 r/Ginseng

Patch Pics

I thought the extreme drought we are in meant nothing would grow this year. My 5 year old wanted to go down to the creek. While down there I decided to check on my babies for the first time in a couple years. Boy am I shocked! Not only did the new seed sprout but some survivors I first planted 4-5 years ago are now 2-3 prongers.

​

I want to build a dam and expand the creek deep enough to swim and stock fish but I would lose half my seng patches. Lol. Maybe I can just move them? Should I thin the babies out in the fall when they die back for the year? I didn't think this would be successful.

u/ihatedarkroast — 2 months ago

Sunday School and Neurodiverse Kids

For those parents who attend church, what does your church do to support your ND child as a church attendee? How does your pastor or staff make your whole family feel welcome or comfortable? What reasonable accommodations do you expect, or are most helpful to your family, or let your family know it's a safe place to worship and have your spiritual needs met in a supportive space?

Or if you are a church staffer or volunteer, what sort of training or support has your church made available to your team on neurodiverse kids and ASD needs? Especially for Sunday school at the elementary and nursery levels? What sort of best practices, expectations are in place with parents to keep everyone safe and the number of incidents to a minimum?

I'm a church admin and nursery volunteer. I have a son who is Audhd lvl 2 support needs. He's the only kid with a diagnosis we currently have. (We are a small church.) We have done pretty well overall with minimal support for Sunday School. But there is a new family coming with 7 kids, including a young child who is still in the assessment phase of diagnosis, whose needs are presenting more of a challenge.

She is 4y but the mother requested to put her with the toddlers/two-year-olds. She had a catastrophic meltdown and was aggressive/violent with the nursery staff, who were completely unprepared and overwhelmed. Also some volunteers are quite elderly, and don't have the physical strength to withstand a meltdown if it gets physical. Typically, we send for a parent in those cases (for some reason they did not last week.)

The regular Sunday school teacher who should have had the student, is unwilling to take her in her class since she cannot sit still and follow a lesson. We are considering splitting the class into two groups by age and having two teachers and a volunteer aid or "buddy" assigned to help with the 4yr old, with both classes sharing the Fellowship Hall.

The parents of this child have gone from church to church partly because of conflict of expectations. They have a teenaged daughter who acts as a caretaker who they would like to be with her own age group instead of with the 4 yr old. The parents also do not want to be with the 4 yr old during service as they are suffering burn out. (They also homeschool.) They possibly look at church as a kind of respite care opportunity? But the Sunday school volunteers are not trained to work with special needs children (except the one who is refusing to take her). Nor do we have a special class just for her. So I'm trying to look for ways to help ease the situation and keep everyone safe. And at the same time, I'd really like to support this family and their spiritual needs in any way we can.

Besides assigning more volunteers and reducing class size, should I ask the parent to sit with their child in Sunday school for a transitional period of a week or two to help us get to know her and help her settle in? Should I set up some sort of training with the staff? I know I should sit with mom and dad and find out more of their needs and what works best with their child. What things should I ask when I talk to them?

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u/ihatedarkroast — 3 months ago

Should I treat the well water?

Hi. New crab owner here, technically a crab grandparent as my 7 year old son is the main caretaker. He has been watching Youtube tutorials and reading books on hermit crabs from the library for months now. We finally caved and got him two male purple hermits from Sparky's in Myrtle Beach.

Still setting up the crabitat, so no pics yet. Still reading over the wiki and links. Crabs are temporarily in an old 5g betta tank in my shower under a heat lamp staying warm, tank plastic wrapped to keep humidity up, fresh water and sponges in a chick waterer currently-- while we scrub down our old 29g and prepare the substrate.

Main question for now is, do I need to use water conditioner on the water for the salt and fresh water bowls? We live in the country and have a well. The soil here is a red clay (Virginia piedmont area of the USA) The water tends to be a bit hard with iron in it, and very slightly acidic. (like 6.8~6.7) It is clear, but has that unpleasant iron taste that takes some getting used to. We use a whole house filter that removes sediment, but no water softeners.

I have several bottles of Tetra brand water conditioner and a bottle of Prime somewhere in a cabinet. Will these help with the iron-y hard water? Is the iron-y hard water even an issue?

I am also going to have to use aquarium salt for the salt bath temporarily. There is no pet store in our rural area. I've ordered marine salt, heating pad, digital thermometer/humidity meter off Amazon. They should arrive in the next day or two.

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u/ihatedarkroast — 3 months ago

Show Me Your Bean Trellis!

Please show me photos of your bean trellis. Usually I plant Dr. Martin Lima Beans, Blue Lake, Fortex, and some yellow wax and bush bean types. The Fortex beans are pretty vigorous. But the Dr. Martin Lima's are unreal in terms of creating a massively heavy jungle of vines and leaf canopy. Their weight easily bends down plastic step-in posts, and a lot of wire fencing. We usually just do a 30-35' long double row for the Dr. Martins, (enough to generate a year's supply for our family) but I'm open to suggestions.

This year we pulled out all our bean posts and expanded the garden. I used the heavy steel T-posts for outside fence posts. We are moving the beans to an entirely new place as they got a lot of viral rust last year. I need a new trellis. I was thinking about trying one of those lashed-together wooden trellises out of saplings/tree limbs. 6' high would be nice?

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u/ihatedarkroast — 3 months ago

What are some odd, interesting, or entertaining things your 2E child does? Or things you used to do as a child, if you are 2E, that others considered unusual?

This week my child was hanging out in a laundry basket with his tablet on the piano bench. Then with his left hand he would solve math problems on the Prodigy game. With his right hand he would pop up like a jack-in-the-box to plink out the notes on the piano of the song the game was playing during math battles...all while chewing his shirt collar.

On the second day of him doing this, I tried to take a picture. But he got embarrassed and ran away.

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u/ihatedarkroast — 4 months ago

Hi. We're going through IEP drafting for my 7 yr old son in Virginia public school Audhd/gifted/sensory processing/anxiety with some speech needs (addressed thru ASD/social needs IEP) FSIQ 134. Lower verbal composite high on abstract reasoning/nonverbal.

I reached out to the child development clinic that did the diagnosing for help with this IEP stuff. They referred me to an Educational Consultant who is assigned to public schools free of charge.

Has anyone used this type of service before? What was your experience? What questions should I ask? What reports should she look over? Doctors clinical notes? How far into the future should we plan?

I feel like I already have pestered the school staff with too many questions like missing wmi/psi scores and caught a mistake in one report where they copy/pasted in the wrong kid's name. So I want to pester this new person instead since I'm all anxious as a parent and need hand holding lol. I probably won't be seeing her in the future so I gotta squeeze out as much help as I can.

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u/ihatedarkroast — 4 months ago