Three weeks in and we are still working hard at making this our new normal. Though not officially said, we are probably out of school until at least May so no use calling it a break any more. This is the New Normal.

Girls and Joe are currently on their “spring break” while I’m officially starting remote learning for my students and Teletherapy is in full swing for Courtney.

Today was the hardest and most exhausting day I have ever experienced as an educator. This is such a new way of teaching. My students require so much 1 to 1, hands on, direct instruction to learn new skills and here we are not even able to see them. Yes, we have the ability to virtually see them but that’s not the same. Meanwhile, we have to do this while running a household. I felt so bad today as my children spent most of the day on an iPad. Yep, I said it! That’s what they were doing! I really hope didn’t even have time to comprehend what was being said at the meetings I was logged into because at the same time I was trying to help Joe with the girls. Tonight you will find me working late to finally wrap my head around all I was told today so I can start “teaching” my students tomorrow.

As I said, teletherapy is in full swing. How is it going? I need to lower my expectations on how I want it to look like on my side during a session. I want it to look like I have complete control of Courtney (and Alyssa). I want it to look like she’s not missing a beat even though she’s not physically with her therapists. But that is not a realistic expectation at all. And the therapists are like family so pretty sure aren’t judging how my parenting skills are. Considering how different this all is, the sessions are going well. The hard part has been how aggressive she is during them. My right arm is covered with scratches and bruises. It’s hard to see her so frustrated but I keep reminding myself that her world has been turn upside down. Once she realizes this is our new normal, it will get better.

The picture I’m sharing is the three of us making teletherapy work on our stair steps. That just happened to be where Courtney wanted to be at that time. So, we made it work!

Tomorrow is another day and maybe it will feel a tad bit more normal.