What’s Covid-19 Distance Learning?!?

This Whole World Wide Covid-19 Virus Pandemic has been difficult for all of us. To say that life has been very strange, would an understatement. Did I think that it would still be going on? No, not at all. I assumed we would be back to normal before the end of June. Now we are well into July and life is still strange.

What has been the most difficult for me? Getting my son Lane through the end of his Senior year of High School. He is my youngest child of 5, and I joke that this was my last time to complete high school, so it was my 6^th senior year. It was pretty much torture for both of us! He hated doing his work on-line. His amazing teachers were so patient with him! Remember, Lane has Asperger’s syndrome, OCD, ADHD and ODD (which is oppositional Defiant Disorder), and has a hard time with change.

It was March of 2020, and all of a sudden everything in his life was changed! He didn’t go to Seminary before regular High School to get his religious instruction every day. He no longer went from class to class changing environments several times a day. Instead he had to be sat down at the kitchen table, and be monitored very closely to do his work. For hours. Every. Single. Day.

Will we survive the Pandemic and finishing his Senior Year from home?!?

Every assignment was excruciatingly painful for both of us. As much as he enjoyed school, he hated doing it on-line. Because he hated doing Seminary on-line as well, he struggled to complete his reading and assignments on time. He even coerced his friend Steve to come over and help him with it. (Which was super nice of Steve, as he is an adult empty nester with lots of grand kids of his own to spend time with.) Thankfully, the last 2 weeks of Seminary were done by Zoom, and he loved seeing his friends faces on the computer monitor every morning!

Lane would wander off if I left the room. If I was not watching him like a hawk, he would be scrolling on Facebook, or YouTube instead of his reading assignments. I did not know if either one of us would survive! One day I said to him, “You know Lane, you do not have to do this homework. I do not have to help you do this homework. You do not have to graduate from High School. You can quit 3 months before the end of your Senior year and explain to everyone why you did just that!”

I had quite enough of the eye-rolls, the grumpy stomps to his chair, the slamming down of his books, the plopping in the chair (which he ended up breaking), the huffing, grunting, groaning and all the drama. Day after day, after day. That statement got him moving again, be it slowly. Although I could empathize with him, there was a point where I had enough, and had to be assertive.

Wait, his Senior project is due WHEN?!?

Then there was the Senior Project. In our school district the kids have a senior project. It is supposed to take them several hours to complete, and includes a rather intensive term paper, annotated Bibliography, a mentor, and a school facilitator. His paper was on Composting and recycling green waste. His project was to make a composter for the Special Education Garden at the High School. Dandy, right? Well yes, except that we totally forgot about it.

It was a Monday when the email came in, reminding us that the final paperwork, term paper and project were due that Thursday. Since there was no contact person to person, the kids were to give their oral presentation verbally by Zoom. Well, we hadn’t even started the composter! The term paper had only two pages to it, and the Project Portfolio Project binder with all of the mentor signatures etc. was missing!

The flooded house… Ugh!

So, if you’ll go back in time with me, at the end of February we had a flood, inside the house with a broken bathtub drain. Upstairs. The Hubby and I were out of town on a much-needed break and weekend get-away for our 30^th anniversary. We got a frantic call from Sterling that water was pouring out of the ceiling can lights and onto the furniture and floor, down the walls, and onto the piano and wood floors in the living room. He could hear someone in the bathtub upstairs.

It was Ellie. Oblivious to the fact that the drain was broken, and thinking she was home alone, she was enjoying a nice long soak. You know the kind where you release the water and refill it when it starts to get cold? Repeatedly. Well, each release was going into my Living-room and not down the drain!

Long story made short, we had to move out of our downstairs, get packed up and moved out, include some great insurance adjusters and service people, and get new flooring. Lane’s Senior Project Portfolio somehow got packed up with all the other stuff that was now residing in over 200 boxes in 2 c-trains on our driveway.

The Senior Project Portfolio was amongst 200 boxes… somewhere

I had to reprint the 20 page portfolio, fill it in, and get new signatures, etc.… (During Social Distancing! Oh, and we live in the country, so nothing is exactly close by nor convenient, even when there is not a Pandemic!) I made a new Project Portfolio binder, and you guessed it, I had to help finish the darn term paper! Lane was beyond overwhelmed by this point. He was to build a composter from recycled wooden pallets and be prepped for his presentation in 3 days! It was crazy. He got so overcome with anxiety, he was almost stunned and to be honest, so was I! Poor kid. I really had to keep on him and keep him on task. His other homework was neglected as we completed this monumental task.

Big Brothers are Life Savers!

Sterling came over and helped to measure, cut and build the composter that Lane and I had found on Pinterest. (LOVE that site!) We found the pallets at our local feed store, and they were kind enough to donate them for Lane’s project. His mentor Brad was able to come over the second day and re-sign papers, and help with the finishing touches. Yes, we survived. Barely. What about his Zoom Presentation? Oh, did I not mention we had to make a Power Point with project photos for that too in those 3 days? Crazy!

Lane is in Special Education, and his teacher gave him a few extra days to prepare for his Power Point and Zoom Presentation. Bless her soul! By the next Tuesday, he was much calmer and cooler headed. I had to take pictures of each page of the darn portfolio book to send to his teacher. All of the extra work due to the Covid-19 Virus was NOT appreciated at all! But Covid-19 Distance learning was just peachy, right?!?

Still, he did his ZOOM Presentation for his amazing Special Education teacher and his awesome School Psychiatrist. They waived the time limit and just let him chat about his slides and his project. His presentation lasted 20 minutes and he got an A! It wasn’t supposed to go over 11 minutes, but like I said, he was given some modifications for his learning and mental challenges.

He survived, I survived and the composter is one heavy duty composting monster which should last the school garden for many years to come. I love my new flooring, and Lane did his Virtual Graduation, and his “4 students at a time, with Social Distancing” video-taped graduation ceremony. He was able to put on that cap and gown and do it! He also wore a special tassel cord which was for being an Eagle Scout. (That’s another story and adventure in Motherhood!)

Yay! The Class of 2020 had one more Graduate!

We Can do hard things. I can do hard things, and so can Lane. With mild Autism, Lane graduated with the class of 2020, during a world-wide Pandemic. The Covid-19 Class of 2020. Come on, you have to laugh even just a little! If I can survive 3 months of homeschooling my Angry Asperger’s, OCD, ODD, ADHD son, then that is something to celebrate!

Lane’s class had no Prom, no senior pranks, no senior Lake Day, no Grad Night, no Sober Grad, and no end of the year festivities. He had no Spring Concert, or Music Tour. There was no one to sign his yearbook, or pass pictures to. We had to return his text books in a drive-by in the school parking lot! They had No high fives, good wishes or hugs from friends and teachers. It was HARD, but they did it. All over the world, they did it! I am so proud of every kid from The Class of 2020!

Life now is Weird. 2020 is Weird. We all know this. It’s okay to say it!

Life is worth celebrating even when it is weird, kind of depressing and different. It is worth reflecting on our blessings even when we cannot be with our friends, go to the movies or to a park, or go to church. My pretty flowers and garden in my backyard became my chapel and sanctuary. I had to escape there often just so that I wouldn’t lose my temper with Lane, really listen to him and what he was trying to say, and not jump to conclusions, even though his speech can be slower when he is processing.

I miss my friends too. He isn’t the only one. But God is good, and there are wonderful things and miracles still happening in the world, even during this strange and often sad time. It is a historic time in the timeline of the world, and we are all a part of it. Take heart, I do believe it will end some time in the near future, and we will have learned from it, grown from it, and most of us survived it.

Hang in there!

~Cynthia