Friday, February 16, 2024

 Friday, February 16, 2024

      My hair is definitely thinner. Randee told me otherwise, so I didn’t feel bad about losing so much hair. It all happened after the fall and the 8 hours of surgery to repair my shattered shoulder and elbow. The stress of the fall, the surgery, anesthesia, pain relief drugs, and being flat on my back for three weeks, two of them in the hospital. Caused the problem. Will my hair recover from that stress at this age? I’m going to find out.

  Elsa and I visited Auntie P. I get Kangen water from her and stay for an hour or so. Auntie P throws a mouse stuffed with catnip to Elsa the whole time we’re there. P and I sit on the lanai and chat. Elsa loves visiting Auntie P. She hyperventilates and bounces in excitement when she sees me with the blue plastic bottles in hand. We drive to Auntie P’s even though they live three driveways down from us. While I could carry the empty bottles there, bringing them home full is another matter. Also, Auntie P’s house is at the top of a long steep driveway. When I enter it, I stop and let Elsa out. I love watching her charge up the driveway. It’s the cutest thing in the world.

  Something remarkable happened today. Adolescent D volunteered the word retribution for our opening exercise. I start each class with him, saying, “Give me a word, any word.” So far, he has been offering single-syllable words. Today, he volunteered that beauty. What made the difference? He said it was just a word that came to mind. He had avoided using multisyllabic words because he feared they would be too difficult to work with. I assured him I was there to help. We attacked that word.

    First, he had to determine the number of syllables and where the divisions occurred. He could use his knowledge of the spoken word to figure it out. We were working from the sound of the word, not figuring out words we didn’t know. It was hard to hear where the division came in. Was it ret/ri/bu/tion or re/trib/u/tion? We played with the possibilities. It was fun for both of us. This is a significant breakthrough. He is experiencing figuring out words as a fun activity. We had some time to work on the article he was reading for school. I heard a difference. He finally acknowledged there may be a difference. Halleluiah!