Quarantine week 7

This week has been a big one!  It was a busy week with zoom & facebook lives for school, my birthday was Tuesday and today Governor Cuomo announced that school is cancelled for the remainder of the academic year.

Things have gotten so crazy that I started using my white board (normally used for cleaning & to-dos) to keep track of our schedule.  I also use Alexa to remind us for afternoon & evening meetings because it's so easy to forget.

Tuesday I turned 44 and it was an amazing birthday!  Typically we would go out for dinner on a special occasion but instead I pulled some Gumbo I previously made out of the freezer & even found a bag of shrimp to put in mine!  It was almost like someone else cooked our dinner.  A few neighbors came over for a social distancing happy hour which was really great!  It's so nice to get to hang out with everyone again, even if we do have to stay over 6' apart. 

That brings us to today, May 1st.  Cuomo came on for his daily briefing and announced that schools are officially closed until Fall.  We have mixed emotions about this decision.  On one hand keeping Annabelle home is the best way to keep her safe and healthy.  On the other hand, some days are very long!  When she finds things hard (math) she melts down or won't do the work and it's so frustrating!  I might have made a good teacher but more of a general education, not special ed.  Although many teacher friends have told me that teaching your own kids is completely different than teaching others.

Overall things are going well here in our part of the world.  Weather is starting to get a bit warmer and the pool opens up in 11 days.  Don't know how long before we can actually swim in it but it's one step closer!

This entire situation is so bizarre but it could honestly be so much worse!  We have it pretty easy, being quarantined with the 3 of us in our wonderful home, healthy, & surrounded by the people we love!

Spring is here!  Pulling out all the furniture.

Getting ready for music therapy with my amazing friend Chaney!  

I've found this fluid schedule is working great for Annabelle. 
We can do AM / PM or the entire day.

Working on typing sight words into her ProSlate

All 5 of our butterflies are out!

Riding her bike, we have to run just to keep up with her now.

This is my daily workout.  Burn Bootcamp on the TV, Annabelle right there. 

Doing speech therapy via Zoom and trying hard not to touch the iPad.

Monkey balance math

Getting ready for kitty music therapy

Working on adding 1 to a number

spelling more sight words

Typing sentences, she's getting pretty fast!

putting together her own snack, working on independence

Does anyone else still have this Tupperware set from the 80's?

Annabelle is an essential employee

goofball

Working on some art

Facebook messenger with friends

She's all smiles, most of the time

It's Hello Kitty!  Lots of fun playing <3

Quarantine week 6

It feels like I wrote our week 5 post yesterday!  The weeks and days fly by, it's so strange since we are not leaving the house at all except for our daily walks around the neighborhood.

We had Annabelle's CSE meeting this week and have decided, along with her teachers, to move her from the integrated co-taught class into a self contained 12:1:1 (up to 12 kids, 1 teacher, 1 aide).  This class will be academically driven but go at the pace that is best for each child.  It was a big decision but after talking to teachers, therapists, the school, and many friends we decided it was a good move for her.  The best part is that it will be offered at her current school (we have 7 elementary schools in the district) and one of our neighbors will be in her class.  We absolutely love everyone at her school and she already knows lots of the students so we are excited for next year!

School is a challenge.  Some days it takes from 10am - 5pm to get the work done because of all the distractions and breaks she needs.  Unfortunately, she needs a lot of support throughout the day so it's a long day for both of us and I get very little done around the house.  It's especially tough when the weather isn't nice so we are stuck inside all day.  It snowed a couple days here this week but we did still manage to get out for a few walks.  We just bundle up really warm!  We are definitely ready for more spring-like weather!!

For fun to remember what is going on during this quarantine week by week I've decided to post the top 10 hashtags of the day I post.  Mainly because so much is happening day to day I want to remember in the future.

1.  #Lysol
2. #InjectDisinfectant
3. #DontDrinkBleach
4. #CongressPassUBI
5. #TrumpIsNotADoctor
6. #FridayFeeling
7. #TheOnion
8. #Jackboy
9. #BankofChina
10. #Sarcastic

Window markers and Bug watching

working on our snap circuits

Created a light circuit

Making necklaces

My morning workout setup

Annabelle gets her math or reading done while I workout
(or dances & watches YouTube LOL)

Looking at maps of the world and doing puzzles

practicing sight words

learning to tell time

so proud!

Subtraction with dice

More subtraction practice

working on patterns

These two <3 

Working on fundations oi & oy

Math flash cards, get 5 right and read a book

Dance class via Zoom

Our caterpillars are in their chrysalis now

 

Working on numbers

Went old school for counting to 12

PJ zoom dance party with Ashford Dance

Annabelle pulled out some books to read today LOL

More math fun!

Today we went on a virtual field trip to zoos around the US.  

The panda eating at the Atlanta Zoo

Quarantine week 5

It's been 5 weeks since Annabelle has been at school, hard to believe it has been that long.  The time is flying by, we are so busy all day from 5am till bedtime at 8pm.  School has been giving assignments along with therapy ideas and even specials (art, music, & PE).  I now understand why there are a team of 10 people teaching Annabelle, it's exhausting and at some times overwhelming!

We know that we will not be going back to school before May 15th but we are speculating that they won't go back until September.  It's just too risky to send all the kids back when they are in such close contact all day.  Our new normal isn't so bad.  We have our schedule, Brian has been working from home since day 1, and we have the love & support of so many friends & family.  Stay healthy!

Our neighbor brought these over for Annabelle, addition & subtraction practice. 
She loves just clicking them all up and down which makes for great OT practice.

On nice days we try to get outside for a few hours in the afternoon. 
We go on lots of walks and also play some soccer.

Chalking together is another favorite past time, can't wait for it to get warmer!

We bought a butterfly growing kit so we have been talking about their life cycle and doing lots of worksheets.  She loved listening to the caterpillar song while we talked about them.

Annabelle loves music so we made a guitar.  
She used it for her next Facebook live music therapy class.

We had foam easter egg coloring.  She loved playing in it.

Obstacle course fun

Another go at it

Putting on makeup while on FB messenger with Grandma Linda <3 

Working on typing sentences, she always slows down when I video her.

After many tries we came up with a great system for a schedule.  The pink folder is our morning then I pull off the pics and put together our afternoon / evening.  She loves knowing what is going on all day.  There is also a reward sheet, when she gets 5 stars she can play on FB messenger with her friends.

Reorganized the table to hold our work, iPads, schedule, folders, and slant board.

Making banana bread