Saturday, March 23, 2024

 Saturday, March 23, 2024

 

I hooked up with Mama K's crew this morning after several tries. They didn't sign on at 9 as planned. I tried calling their older sister, who was at home watching the girls. The moment I called her number, the call dropped. I called Mama K. She said her daughter had her phone turned off. Mama K got hold of her, and the Twins connected on Zoom. I was already running late. 

I checked Twin E on old word lists. She hadn't made progress. She went through  Fry Sight Word lists 1-125 at a good clip, missing one or two words that she always gets stuck on. She slowed down on list 126-150 but read most of the words correctly. I will return to the game we both enjoy after another session. I wanted to stop and appraise her progress.

   I finally got time with Twin A. She read slowly. I asked her if she consciously decoded each word. She said she did. No wonder she reads slowly. 

I pushed her to use automatic processing. The problem is that she doesn't evaluate if a word makes sense in a sentence or accurately resembles the word she says. She grabs the first letter and perhaps one additional one and makes a wild guess—truly a wild guess. The word renders the sentence meaningless. How can I combat that tendency?

   I spent most of the day on the sofa, happily catching up on updates. 

This is the most writing I've done in a while, and it felt good. Besides that, I spent time boiling water and killing the weeds with it.

   Lutz stopped by in the late afternoon to check out my microwave. He thought I might not be working because of a fuse in the appliance. I told him I checked the fuse in the house fuse box. That wasn't the issue. I also told him I used to get it to work by spinning the 'plate' in the oven. Ah, then he knew what the problem was. There was a switch in the middle of the turntable. If I turned the table gently, it would be okay. So far, I've been giving it a mighty spin worthy of a roulette wheel. I could be adding to the damage by doing that.

   He was also concerned that the under-the-counter microwave had no circulation. It was right up against the back wall. I noticed the counter was deep. I got out the measuring tape, got the measurement off the new microwave I bought, and the measurement of the counter. The counter was a good 10" deeper than the microwave. It had room to breathe but perhaps not enough ventilation. That space behind the microwave is closed. Lutz moved the microwave out an inch. I don't know if it will make much of a difference.