Hey guys!
First, how are y’all? Any crazy stories?
It’s been pretty quiet on my end. I guess that is because I have yet to leave my house. I needed to leave to buy milk but our respite provider (who is basically family) saved the day and brought us two gallons! It was so sweet of her. Lucina sobbed her eyes out when Mrs. J left. Lucina is having the hardest time with the isolation. The girl misses her morning class and play dates badly.
Alexander on the other hand is living his best life. The boy only puts on shorts and a muscle shirt when it’s time to go outside for “recess.” Other than that, you can expect AJ to be in boxers chilling in his room or doing happy frog jumps from door to door. I really need knees like him. I don’t know how his knees support all that jumping and squatting lol.
It hasn’t been a week yet, but it feels like it. We started our “homeschooling” on Wednesday. I didn’t want to do a schedule for the kids, but AJ was having a hard time. He misses the structure of class.
He wasn’t having behaviors or anything serious; he just wanted to stay stuck on a screen and would get over stimulated. He was also having problems sleeping again. I knew the screens had to go. I always struggle with screen time; I’m not even going to lie about that. AJ watches educational shows and I have his communication app on the iPad. I guess I use those for justification. I can’t completely get rid of the iPad because his words are on there. I will not strip him of his voice.
The struggle comes with temptation. I put guided access but then he fixates knowing his cartoons are just a password away. He does get over it and uses his words, but it puts a bad taste in his mouth. I’m actually doing good about not budging, I just hate that we go through a tiny rough patch every time. Luckily I have a tablet coming from insurance that is strictly an AAC device. This will allow me to put the iPad up without stripping him of his voice.
Anyway, back to the homeschool schedule.
The pictures above show the schedule we use. It’s honestly more of a guide for me. It helps me organize the schoolwork his teacher sent home so I am not fumbling at the table. AJ will take any distracted moment to bail. A boy of opportunity he is.
I don’t stick to the times on the schedule; if AJ finishes a task before the time period, I let him go play. I also scheduled a five-minute wiggle break in between each lesson. While AJ is getting his wiggles out, I work with Lucina. She loves being included. If I don’t include her, she will forcefully take AJ’s schoolwork and try to do it herself. I actually picked up her schoolwork the other day so she can have something to do.
I’m trying my best to work with each of them 1-1. They both crave that individual attention and need it when doing homework.
On a good note, AJ beasts his tracing activities. He still writes very light, so I have to help him apply more pressure. He definitely understands tracing, but I noticed he does struggle with comprehension when there are multiple steps. Sometimes he zones out, which can be a typical Autism trait for some, so it’s hard to tell if he doesn’t comprehend or if he “isn’t there” and zoning. My mom gut tells me it’s more of zoning with a sprinkle of not comprehending.
Our Workstation
Let’s talk about our workstation. If you follow me on Facebook and Instagram, you already know I took over Joe’s fishing table. Our home is cozy but has a great size living room. Joe was using a craft table to make fishing poles but once the remote learning was announced, that had to change.
Fun fact: I always buy learning stuff at the dollar store or Target. The wanna-be homeschooling mom inside of me was a little excited to pull all this stuff out. I didn’t have to buy anything, though I want to go buy stuff for shapes and colors.
I basically just pinned up all our stuff for a visual. I also put a clock to work on teaching AJ the concept of time. If we finish our work before 2:30 (most days we do), I still keep AJ’s tablet locked to his word app until the agreed time. He is doing well now that he knows the new routine. Another thing that I am big on pushing is playtime.
Kids learn through play. I am not about to have AJ stuck at a table all day working. Instead, we do our pencil to paper work at the table and other activities on our Nugget. The Nugget is an open-ended play kid sofa. I’ll link it below. We do math and spelling practice with our puzzles and counting to 100 during “music time.”
When we come back from eating lunch, I put on Jack Hartmann counting to 100 while doing exercise moves. The kids love it. I’ll link the video below.
Keeping Busy
So what are we doing to keep busy? Going outside to play!
It has been so beautiful here. We go outside to swing, scribble with chalk, look at the trees and play with bubbles. The kids will be out all day if I let them. We had to miss going out today because of a little rain.
The world is in chaos, but my neighborhood has been having blissful sun, breeze and peaceful energy. It’s kind of crazy. Everyone is outside working on their yards or doing bike rides. Not in groups or anything, but I just see this throughout the day. I love seeing the families spend time together. I would say that’s the beauty in this tense situation.
Granted, I haven’t left my house lol. I’m sure tensions are high in the middle of town where it’s busy. I also wouldn’t be surprised if every household (including mine) has bickering going on. My kids either love one another or bicker nonstop. The other day I gave Lucina two cookies so I could sit down. Don’t think we are all peaceful and full of grace here lol. We take it a day at a time.
I hope all this social distancing lowers the curve and the kids can get back to seeing their friends and some normalcy. Luckily my anxiety evened out, I’m just tired. The good thing is since I cut down screen time for AJ he has been sleeping better.
I hope wherever you are in the world that health and happiness find you. Take it a day at a time. If you have anxiety like me, just remember one word: BREATH.
Before this blog gets deep, I will go ahead and sign off. I may have to run to the store soon, if I see some crazy things, I’ll be sure to blog about it when I get home. I’ll go ahead and post the links below. Stay healthy my friends!
Until next blog ❤
Links
Click the names and it will take you to the websites.
The Comfort Nugget : The kids play sofa
Jack Hartmann Video : Use this video to exercise wiggles out and count to 100
Math Puzzle : Puzzle game for simple math
Spelling Puzzle: Easy three and four letter words to practice spelling
RAISING OPPOSITES 