Raising my Poppy

I have a rather large family that includes a foster son, two step-sons and 4 biological children.  As the end of my 30's began looming my husband and I began to talk about life after children.  What were we going to do once all of the children were out of the house because we were looking at a 5 year time frame.  Then out of the blue, surprise I found myself pregnant.

The arrival of our youngest became life changing, not just because we were starting over raising a child again but because of who she was.  Immediately we started receiving comments about her beautiful eyes.  Our daughter has these fathomless blue eyes with such a presence behind them that most people take notice.  It wasn't just the color that people were remarking on it was the presence behind them.

By the time our daughter was 18 months it was quite clear that we had an exceptional child on our hands.  Her intellect and creativity were so much more advanced than any of our other children and all of our other children were intelligent and creative.

I had been introduced to homeschooling when my other children were in elementary school, but I refused to join the movement.  I loved my children but I needed that 7 hour break 5 days a week thank you very much.  With Auria it was clear to us that public school would not be a good fit for her and private school was beyond our budget.  Homeschooling it would be.

In order to keep our daughter occupied and out of mischief I started preschool at 2. Just little things that she had fun doing and plenty of educational programming on TV.  As we progressed we started using ABC Mouse and other specific learning applications.

As our journey became more geared to formal learning I realized I was having to fight to get through what needed to be accomplished each day.  Its not that our child couldn't do things its that she didn't want to.  I started reading up on exceptional children and found that often these children required IEP's just as often as those on the other end of the spectrum.  It's not necessarily ADD but their brains are just going so fast that its hard to keep them focused on the task at hand because they are simply focused on something else.

I found a co-op that helped because she had regular contact with the same children weekly other than at church, but even at the co-op if the class bored her she refused to participate.

Recently I found a Facebook group called Raising Poppies and then because I homeschool it was recommended that I join Homeschooling Poppies as well.  As I began to read the entries I recognized my daughter in many of them.  Many of these parents were facing the same struggles as I.  There were many posts about children who would do science and math all day but didn't see the point of reading and writing.  There were others that were constantly taking things apart to see how they worked and there were others that had children who's creativity just operated on a whole different level than anyone else.  This was my daughter.

I am sure there are many who think I talk about my daughter's advanced intellect to brag or place myself higher than their children.  That is not the case.  I talk about it because the challenges that I face can be frustrating and bring awe of what I see every day.  I often have to remind myself that my child is only 6 because what comes out of her mouth is not a concept most 6 year olds grasp.

There is a point to this blog today.  Although my daughter is a joy to have, raising her has me facing challenges I would have never imagined.  We all have challenges in our lives that we face on a regular basis.  The key to overcoming them is to find others facing those same challenges and find a support and sounding board to find solutions to those challenges.  Don't feel like you have to go it alone.  Seeking out support and asking for help does not make you weak.  It makes you strong because you locate and utilize any resource that you can.  In the end reaching out can make a huge difference in how you overcome your challenges.  In the end the only thing that matters is that you one day find yourself successfully on the other side of those challenges, having overcome everything thrown at you.