Job Board

Unertl Family

Stefanie and Justin

Amelia – 11

Charlotte – 9

Caroline – 5

We are a fun, active, Christian family who love each other a lot and need a little bit of help. The kids are all incredibly brilliant – so much so, that we can’t use many of the available local resources because their IQ’s are “too high to qualify”. Still, they have some challenges which I will describe below.

Fist, what I want you to know about our family is that we do things pretty differently from the norm. All three girls attend a nontraditional school under the

ACTON Academy model: three days each week in a school setting M-W, and Th/Fri’s at home. It is heavily parent-involved for guidance purposes ONLY – the model is student-driven, and the kids are responsible for their own advancement.

On the days at home, I really have to follow their cues and motivations – we need to make sure the work gets done, but if their bodies are not ready to be still and brains are not ready to focus, then we pivot to some outdoor time and often work on school in pieces throughout the day. The goal is for them to learn how to be responsible and manage a timeline while successfully completing their tasks. They also have expectations to help out at home and take care of each other. We don’t have “free” time until our “have-to’s” are done!

Rather than semesters, the school is 6 weeks on/1 week off from September through May, so we need help on Thursdays, Fridays, and after school on M-W’s as much as possible; in addition to more days during the week on their school breaks.

Dad travels nearly every week, and Mom works part time at this time for a nonprofit; but in addition to just childcare to cover working hours, what we really need is another parent in the house. After years of heightened nervous systems due to the kids’ behaviors, we are working toward building consistency and routine in our home. It gets interrupted very easily when one child is not ok, however, and safety is a concern for the other children in that scenario. Because being active is so helpful for their regulation, it often requires getting out of the house in a 1:1 situation. Basically, mama just needs two of her in order to give them all what they need!

The following are the things that these beautiful children are working through:–

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Amelia (11) is a high-functioning autistic girl who has streaks of intense anxiety and gets easily overwhelmed by the normal demands of everyday life. PDA is probably our biggest hurdle every day right now and causes some aggressive behavior. Executive functioning is a big struggle for her.

We cope with this by not being over functioning parents – she is gradually learning, but it’s frustrating for her that just when she masters one skill, life catches up and there is more to adapt to!

Charlotte’s (9) biggest struggle is ADHD and ARFID, while she also has some pretty big anxiety and is also diagnosed with Level 1 Autism.

However, she has naturally adapted SO well and beyond our expectations. A few weeks ago she took herself off of adderall, and we followed her lead about how she felt in her body and brain. We believe that nearly two years of neurofeedback has tremendously improved her symptoms. She also has undiagnosed OCD which really interferes with her daily life.

Caroline (5) is a neurotypical and extremely bright little sister who very much does not want to be “the baby”. She is working through the usual growing pains of being a big little kid, and has shown a lot of signs of anxiety but is so good at learning and implementing coping skills. She sees a play therapist just because she deserves an outlet with everything she’s been around in her little life so far!

Thank you for considering being a ‘third parent’ in our house. We look forward to welcoming you as part of our family!

To Apply: Stefanie Unertl 303-947-0226