March Madness

March ended up blowing us away with all that happened...and didn't happen :(

These are just a few moments from March and moving into quarantine.

First, here's another one of Abby's cute creations...she painted her phone charger :)

As things started getting kind of crazy at the stores, people started looking at their 72 hour kits.

I hauled ours out and Matt had fun trying on his clothes that we had packed away for him about 1.5 years ago.  He's grown a bit :) (note the flip flops)

Just some beautiful clouds over the Welsvilles...

When the schools decided to close they arranged for parents to come pick up packets for at home schooling.  They made it cute with balloons and signs and things.

We were lucky that Ben really likes his aide and enjoyed getting on the computer to see her three times a week.  Otherwise, it would have been a real challenge getting him to come sit in his chair and do school work.  He had about 6 or 7 different goals that we worked on.  His best was probably shapes.  However, this experience was a real eye opener for me and I will have some strong opinions at his next IEP as to what his goals should be.  I've always known what they were but seeing them in action helped me realize what is beneficial to Ben and what is not.

In the packet that was sent home there were loads of worksheets and crafts and things.

The first day Abby tried to help him with a worksheet and he would have none of it.

I felt bad because of all the work the teachers had gone to to put everything together, but after Abby's attempt, I didn't push any school work on him beyond working with his aide.

I didn't get pictures of the other kids doing their school work...I don't know why :( but we fell into a routine and after a few weeks it looked like Matt getting on the desktop every morning...Abby on the chrome book either at the kitchen counter or a couch and Josh on my laptop somewhere in the house.  They would spend hours a day...especially Abby.  There was definitely a learning curve...we got an email from one of Matt's teachers a week or two in saying he was missing a huge assignment.  Well, Matt hadn't been aware of it because he had been looking in the wrong place on Canvas for his assignments for that class.  Kind of messy.  Abby had to exercise 30 minutes every day and upload a picture of her doing it for her PE class.  She also got online every Friday for a meeting with her seminary class.  I don't know how to fully describe the experience but none of us loved it.  

Ben enjoys spending time with Abby.

One of his techniques is to throw his toys and books up on her bed and then has her pull him up on with her.  Her bed is higher up off the ground so he's like a little prince on his throne up there :)