December Sucks – Chestnut Ridge Academy

There is pretty much no other way to state it other than “December Sucks.” The entire month sucks the joy out of our house. It sucks the energy out of us as parents. It sucks the coping strategies out of E. It becomes a mission of survival.

After the Mental Health Day on December 8th, the mission for December became about reprogramming the Christmas anxiety triggers. For the sake of E’s future, I decided it was best to dive deeply into the anxiety, to build up coping strategies for the times that apprehension overwhelms him, to build acceptance of lack of control, and to find productive ways to pass time.

After noticing that E sitting in a class and becoming bored was spiking his anxiety, we stopped all enrichment activities that he did not truly love. So, going forward we decided “Only attend the classes that you are excited to go to and enjoy the entire time - if you get bored, leave the class.” We reiterated that he has the power to control how he manages his body’s needs.

You won’t find a specific list of items we completed for CRA in December beyond December 7. But, what I can tell you is that we did a LOT of things that will hopefully build positive associations with the holidays for E. One of the greatest joys of CRA is that we can pause for mental health like this. And so, we did. Here is our December in a slideshow:

Font Designer

He completed a professional font design course focused on the use of Adobe Illustrator’s pen tool.

Font Designer

Complexity never phases E when he’s interested in the topic.

Apple Store Getup

Testing out the safety gear for Apple Store visit on Dec 16

Apple Store!

He did it! He went to the Apple store!

iPhone Goldilocks

He was drawn to the iPhone 13s in a nanosecond and quickly sized up the options to conclude that the iPhone 13 Pro was “just right” for him… not too big and not too small but has the best camera still.

Apple Store Delight

So much fun getting out to see a BRAND NEW Apple store!

First Snow...?

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow… or frost.

3D Architectural Modeling

E created a 3D model of our home and used augmented reality to test its fit in a snow globe before printing.

Snow Globe

E made a snow globe with his 3d printed model of our house!

Music Man

There was LOTS of music playing this holiday season to support regulation.

We baked...

chocolate chip cookies.

He Ate

Which he enjoyed, yay!

Dipped Pretzels

We melted chocolate, dipped pretzels, and added sprinkles. Everything is better with sprinkles.

Pinch Pots

We used Air Dry Clay to make pinch pots… which quickly turned into ornaments and marbles and fidgets…

Regulation

Papa made this see through clock for him when he was about 3 and fascinated with gears. It reemerges when anxiety is high as a source of regulation…

We Focused...

We completed activities requiring a lot of focus and detail to keep our minds occupied as we waited for Christmas to come…

Anti-Math

We explored math puzzles instead of computation to focus on solving challenges.

Multiplication Master

We decided to brush up on multiplication skills using the Math For Love strategy of a few problems a day… while also playing in a sensory bin.

Water Pipes

We imagine worlds filled with water pipes that magically moved water across the room, down ramps, and jumped onto trampolines to its final destination.

We Spelled

Spelling continued and remains an area of interest, the complexity increasing rapidly.

Pride

E was proud of his beautiful bird art work completed with days of sticker focus.

Math Challenges

Again, working on challenges rather than computation. E enjoyed a giant math problem on his whiteboard … about the Apple store of course.

Cracked Egg

E cracked his first egg!

Egg-smiley

Which magically looked like a smiley face!?

Broccoli Kisses

His love for broccoli continues to grow since our experiment a few days ago… it is his favorite food now he says.

More CRA?!

Not a fan of continuing CRA beyond Dec 20 but we kept going to give his brain less time to focus on anxiety…

The Grinch

The last week of CRA we did a literary study of 3 famous Christmas traditional stories. One was The Grinch. He drew the character, analyzed it, discussed the plot map, and chose his favorite.

Author

He then created his own Christmas story with a similar plot graph and main character…

Rudo

He diamond painted a rudolph which require days of focus and fine motor practice to produce a framed artwork to cherish for years to come.

Vector Art

E loves to create, constantly creates. This is one of many pieces of art he shared with me.

Rudo-More Work

Rudo took many days!

Chex Mix

We made chex mix… and fed the dog.

Problem Solving

Our deliveries kept showing up at the end of the long driveway… E created an OFFICIAL road sign to place at the driveway to instruct delivery people.

Board Games

We played a new board game every day… to never be bored.

Font Readability Testing

E created a new font, called School Sans with the goal of replacing Comic Sans. He decided to perform a readability test of the font with his friends Emma and Noah.

Sugar Cookies

We made sugar cookies, perfect circles of course. But then dipped half in chocolate and sprinkled powdered sugar on the others.

Paper Fonts

E was hyperlexic as a young child and loved that we made letters for him using this tool. I got it out today for him to puzzle his way through making his own!