Monday, June 10, 2024

 Monday, June 10, 2024  

 

  This was my third night of agitation. I went to bed late, exhausted from a day of emotional turmoil. I was so tired that I asked Isaac to drive us home from the Thai restaurant last night. I wasn’t fit to do it. I went to bed at 10 and woke up two hours later. On a good night, I sleep through to 4 a.m. Not last night. I slept fitfully the whole night. I didn’t know if I could teach.

    Twenty-six-year-old S canceled. She was recovering from her return flight from Las Vegas, where she visited her family.  Folks in Hawaii have a thing for Las Vegas. 

   Isaac accompanied me to the Chi Qigong class on the beach at Old A.  I focused on myself while we did the exercises. I caught Isaac from the corner of my eye; he was into it.  He said he enjoyed it.  He loved being at Old A. He said he had regular outings with his students two years ago when he was here.

We went home to work on my closet area.  There’s a heavy table with several leaves blocking access to the window; Isaac said he would help me move. I couldn’t move it on my own.  The two of us worked hard to get the job done. Isaac removed half the window and the screen. He cleaned the one fixed in the frame, leaning out the window to reach the far end, while I cleaned the screen and the removed side of the window out in the yard.  We got the job done in time. Isaac commented on my mobility. I love working hard and fast. It lifts my spirits. My mom was that way. She thrived on hard work.  I get down when I’m not active enough. It’s not just keeping busy; it’s the adrenalin boost.

   I was disappointed in the way the windows turned out. The stains were still there. One section was covered with connected hexagons like a bee hive. I have no idea how that happened. I thought it was because I hadn’t cleaned the windows. I was concerned all my windows would be vulnerable to that staining. When I looked it up on the Internet, it said that staining was due to moisture getting between the two panes of glass. It had nothing to do with my negligence.

  Isaac and I got to the airport in plenty of time. He was off for the next phase of his life. This was a brief vacation between his graduation from college and his entry into med school. 

   It was a Ulu Wini day.  I worked with going into second grade KS. I forgot to work on his serious handwriting problems.  Everything about his hand grip is wrong. How do I describe it? He holds the pencil far up on the shaft with straight fingers. He flicks the point across the surface of the paper. He has no control.  Today, having forgotten to check my notes before I started working with him, I went right into practicing the sight words. At the end of first grade, students should have the first 100 words memorized; KS is still struggling with words 1 through 50.  Today, I noticed how he slowed down more and more as he progressed. I asked if it felt as if his mind was getting stuck.  Did he wrestle with a spinning sensation in his head? Yes. I did a spin release with him.  While this procedure is unusual, I’m delighted to say I’ve never had a student react badly. I am careful to have them not do it if it frightens them. I would be concerned if they did this while frightened. It might deepen a trauma rather than lessen it.  When he reread the list of words, it went more smoothly.

  Going into 6th grade RN also needed help with handwriting. He asked to work on cursive. I did guided activities with him.  He rested his hand on top of mine as he wrote. His hand and arm moved with mine. Then we changed, and my hand rested on top of his.  I can exercise some guidance in this position, making minor adjustments in his strokes. I also get to feel how their hand and arm move when writing. It’s a beneficial exercise.

  I tried to go to the cosmetics store again today. I drove down to the church after Ulu Wini. I was so tired that I napped in the church parking lot while Fr. Lio broke up the cement on the walkway. The man is so hands-on. I didn’t have the energy to take on the hustlers at the cosmetics shop, so I just went home.

  I had my fifth session with third-grade LG. He told me he had started reading signs. I was shocked. Reading signs is something an emergent reader does. It took a year before Adolescent D started doing it. But LG could read a third-grade passage well enough to know what it said. D was reading at a low first-grade level when we started. 

    LG read a low third-grade passage with accuracy. Today, I started him on making the best guess when decoding unfamiliar words and using context to figure out the correct pronunciation. Dehaene, a French neuroscientist, said that figuring out a word in context is something all English readers have to do.  What does the word ‘cook’ mean? Is it a noun, a verb, or an adjective in context?  English is complex. That’s what makes it fun.