Saturday, October 30, 2021

 Saturday, October 30, 2021

 

 I met the W & M sisters this morning. One had told me that they had an early morning game and would have to do it later. I texted mom. No. Their game was in the afternoon; we were okay for the morning.  Mom was sitting in on the sessions this morning. She hadn't done that in a while. I wondered what it meant. I suppressed any feelings of paranoia.

      I was seeing a big difference in 5th grade W.  She was performing at grade level. Her decoding skills are good, as are her comprehension skills.  She just needs a lot of practice.  She still misses some suffixes and sight words, maybe one per paragraph if that many. I want to push her so she is a year beyond grade level.  I wonder if I should have her go back to a third-grade level for some additional practice.     At the end of the session, W told me she had this great activity where is could convert anyone's doddle into "great art." Would I participate? Sure. I drew something of the sort I had never drawn before. I saw the possibility of it being a woman with a large picture hat. W saw it the same way.  She added one line I hadn't anticipated. It was somewhat of a surprise, even though I could see it was a necessary line.

  With first grade M, I worked on Phase I on her story. It was too hard for her. I think I'm going to have to back off and use more basic material. She also started writing another story. I 

    I had adolescent D at 11:30. I asked as I always do if he had done any reading. I wasn't surprised to learn there was no reading done in school yesterday. The school was on party time for Halloween.  But yes, he had read some riddles. Could he read them? Yes.  Does he see that focusing on the vowel letters helps him read? Yes. 

    He still makes serious mistakes with the basic sight words, confusing of, for, and from.  I reminded him it is common to see students with a history of reading problems read long, difficult words and still have issues with basic sight words.  I believe it is because these words weren't stored correctly in memory in the first place. We continued the work.  I heard how one word 'slipped out of his mouth.' I could feel the surprise. 

  It was Saturday: bath day for Elsa. Oh, yay! This is our favorite activity.  We have to sit there for 15 minutes while the medicated soap does its thing.  At least, I plan it for a time when I can listen to something engaging on the radio.  Elsa just has to suffer.

   Brian and Tommy came over in the early afternoon.  Judy told me that Brian is selling a system that makes the internet more powerful.  With what I have now, the upload is 75, and the download is 9; with his system, the upload is 300, and the download is 20.  I would drop my account with Spectrum and get my internet connection through their Spectrum account. I'm not quite sure how it works. Worse comes to worst, I'll have to renew my contract with Spectrum. Of course, I will have dropped a pretty penny on the initial expense for the equipment. C'est la vie.  Yvette might be interested in participating. We would have one account then.

   I would lose my 'landline' phone. It's a landline phone, but it's not 'a landline.' The phone is run through the internet.  I don't think is such a thing as a landline anymore. However, I haven't been without a desktop phone since I was 9. It's a little freaky.  I don't use the landline for anything except diverting cold calls and scams, oh, yes, finding my cell when I've misplaced it. 

Tommy immediately put an app on my computer that will allow me to find my phone. It's better than just calling from another phone. It shows the location of the phone and has the phone make a locating sound. It's unpleasant. It's so high-pitched. I was amazed it was still in my hearing range.

  Yvette stopped in to ask if  I  noticed the car parked at the side of the road in front of the vacant lot next to our house. A couple just sits there, smoking and dropping their cigarettes on the ground. Yvette said they didn't look the healthiest. She thought they might be druggies. Yvette stopped by and asked them to please pick up their butts when they left. They accommodated her.  Tonight, I had a chance to talk to them for a few minutes.  The man leaned against his car as the woman came walking up with her dog on a leash.  I asked if they chose this spot because they liked the view of the sunset. They said no. They lived a few streets away.  While the sunsets were great, that's not why they came there every night.  Their behavior is weird and requires an explanation. They should move to another spot or integrate into the neighborhood. If they just drive down the hill three miles, there a plenty of parking spaces along the waterfront. Very confusing and somewhat disconcerting.