Friday, March 7, 2025

 Friday, March 7, 2025

    It was a Hula morning. Same ole, same ole. I was ready to quit fifteen minutes in. I didn't because it's a great exercise for my left arm and my hips.  From where I stand, I suspect Hula dancers have trouble with their knees because they initiate the hip movement with them instead of in their hips.  The hip movement comes from dropping one hip instead of raising the other. It looks the same, roughly. But the mechanics are different. I feel the stretch in my inner thigh muscles. 

   I met with the fifth-grade Twins today. I did two reading comprehension exercises on determining the main idea at the fifth-grade reading level with Twin A. She read both passages fluently—except for one or two-syllable words she blithely misread and kept going. She answered the questions quickly and correctly, demonstrating understanding.

   I continued with material on the third-grade level with Twin E. I did not refer to the exercise we did in our last session when she dealt with the trauma of being yelled at by her preschool teacher for not grasping something. Both girls struggled to remember the alphabet at the end of first grade. Twin E struggled with word recognition and comprehension at the third-grade level. The gap between the twins is increasing. I hope her fall out of that two-story window didn't cause physical damage. She certainly doesn't remember it, although she may know the story.  She's never brought it up,- but the body remembers. Her parents' fear would have impacted her even if the fall wasn't damaging.

   I also had fifth-grade GV. I let him choose what he wanted to work on: reading comprehension, writing, or spelling. He chose writing. He had a day and a half today. One bad thing happened after another. His alarm acted up, and the place he usually sat to eat his school breakfast was taken; as he walked to class, a student in his reading class called him the N-word five times. His usual reading teacher was absent, and the sub knew nothing about the spelling test he promised to give GV.

   GV had serious spelling problems. Although his homeroom teacher doesn't give spelling tests, his reading teacher was going to give him one as a favor. GV studied hard with his parents' help. He was disappointed not to take the test.

    Here's a boy who felt shame about his poor spelling, who is now excited to take an unrequired spelling test. He now sees spelling as a challenge and a game. Fantastic!

   As for the student who called GV the N-word, he's going to be mighty embarrassed when he learns what it means. GV is 100% white, or haole, as we're called here in Hawaii. The boy had brown skin; he's a local, as he's known here in Hawaii.  That means he could be Hawaiian, Micronesian, Filipino,  Samoan, Hispanic, or from any of the myriad immigrant cultures living here. We figured he must hear the adults in his family hurl that word at each other.  His family will get a good laugh at the poor kid's expense. GV had no idea what prompted the boy's behavior.

   GV wrote a story about his day.  His organization was very good. His problem is with his language skills. GV's family is educated. This sounds like an auditory processing problem.

  Darby didn't show up tonight. We walked last night. Sometimes, she's too busy or too tired to walk with me.  Yesterday, she mentioned her plank again. She said years ago, when her brother, his wife, and son visited, she won the plank challenge. She challenged her nephew to one on their visit last week.  She said she was up to a minute; Miles said he could do seven minutes. I finally tried it. I got up to 50 seconds and could easily done 10 seconds more. I'm just not sure I'm doing it right. I will have to check with Darby.