Quarantine Homeschooling - Week 1

Well, we’ve officially been in quarantine for one week and so far, we’re surviving. Hudson has been out of school a little longer, but it has been one week since we’ve started our “Quarantine Homeschooling” and I wanted to give everyone a little update on how that is going.

I have to say the first two days went very well (having nice weather helped A LOT). I came up with a schedule and we had a good mix of educational activities, down time, and some therapy activities thrown in there too, and he didn’t fight me on anything. By Day 3 I had read too many news stories (and we found a tick in the house) so my anxiety was quite high and I couldn’t quite focus on “teaching” Hudson much of anything so he had a little extra screen time, which he loved.

Over the weekend I made the decision to keep our 17-month old from his small in-home daycare. I knew this would be a challenge as the two boys fight and are both equally dependent on us, but I also knew that I needed to do what I could in order to keep my family safe during this uncertain time. Our health is more important than education at this point. As a result, I changed our schedule and have been doing the best I can. Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been as cooperative as it was last week, and our littlest guy is teething terrible which has made things a bit more complicated and has resulted in a lot more screen time for Hudson.

We’re still trying to keep things somewhat normal, though. Every morning we’re up by 7-7:30am and have breakfast, brush teeth and get dressed. I give Hudson a little downtime before we do any work. Then we will read some stories and do an online lesson through Scholastic (FYI: they have GREAT lessons!!). I’ve been adding in different type of OT therapy sessions such as practicing our writing and cutting, sensory play through beans or water beads, and taking off multiple rubber bands from one of his dinosaur toys. After that, he typically gets iPad time or some of his “shows” that he loves. We’ve also discovered that giving him some alone time in his room with a few toys has been a saving grace for everyone. He gets alone time, Finn gets some one-on-one time, and Mommy and Daddy get a slight break. This has been especially important when meltdowns and/or fighting with his brother occur. It’s like naptime without the nap (that went out the door a long time ago…). Before he goes to bed we try to slip in a game; he’s currently learning Go Fish! and absolutely loving a Jurassic World memory game.

Overall, I feel as if our first week has gone well. Has he learned as much as he would in school? No, definitely not, but I think we’re doing the best we can at a time like this. Some days might result in way more screen time, but I know even if we work with him for an hour or two a day it’s still progress. And in all honesty, it’s not the education part that I’m nervous about. I’m more concerned about all the progress he’s made in his therapies. We’ve come so far this year and the thought of a regression is a bit terrifying.

So far, he hasn’t really had many questions or concerns for what’s happening. Hudson is in his “safe place” here at home that he loves, and that’s all that matters to him. I do think he’s starting to miss friends as he’s been asking to video chat some of them. Today, he told me he missed school a little bit. He even asked to go to Farmland today and I of course had to tell him it was closed, just like everything else around us currently. He replied, “because of being sick?”, which kind of blew me away a bit. We’ve talked about it A LOT but the only response I ever get is a quiet “yeah.” I guess he is retaining some things I have been teaching 😉.

That’s week one, I can’t promise Week 2 will go as smoothly; time will tell. Really, the most we can hope for - when this is all said and done - is our health and sanity, right?!