Parenting

I have an 8yo and an almost 10yo. My 8yo has “big feelings” and has had a hard time making close friends at school. She had one last year that was mostly good, but they also clashed a lot and the other girl was constantly trying to distract my daughter in class, so they’re not in the same class next year. Learning in school doesn’t come as naturally to my daughter as other kids (including my son) and she has to work at it so the distraction is a real problem. We also think she is dyslexic — the school district “won’t label it” but will give accommodations based on assessment results and private tests are f-ing expensive. So we also have an (expensive) outside tutor to try to help her. It’s so hard. She’s so extroverted compared to everyone else in the family and struggles so much, and it’s hard to know how to help her without also burning ourselves or our son out.

Meanwhile my 10yo is the “easy” kid and just has attention issues, which he totally gets from his dad, but it doesn’t seem to line up with anything clinical so we’ve never bothered to get him tested. He’s just daydreamy. If he’s engaged, we have no issues.