Friday, April 18, 2025

  Friday, April 18, 2025

  I met with the Twins at 8 am. It was Good Friday, and they had the day off.  I started with Twin A. I told her outright that if she wanted to work with me less, she had to begin decoding the longer words instead of guessing, using only the first letters of the words, and even ignoring the context. We worked on comprehension. She read two passages on the same topic but from different perspectives and had to determine the main idea.  She knew the vocabulary. She was mentally 'lazy,' as many of my students were. If it didn't pop into her head immediately, she wasn't interested in giving it a moment to figure it out.  Could it be she doesn't know how to do that? I should consider that and not assume hostility. It works better when I take a sympathetic point of view of the student's motivation.
   Twin E chose to work on the dictation and spelling exercise, where I dictate phrases, clauses, or sentences. She had to remember the words and spell them out to me. She still struggled at a 3rd-grade level. The disparity between the girls is a concern.  Twin A tests on a fifth-grade level in reading now, while Twin E is a good two years behind. 
     Twin E experienced a trauma that Twin A didn't. She fell out of a two-story window when she was crawling. The doctors gave her a clean bill of health physically, but how did the fall and everyone's reaction affect her?
   Elsa had a 1:30 vet appointment to get a vaccine shot and an ear culture, the latter at my request. I wanted the test to provide concrete information about the effectiveness of the treatment I had been using. It had been a month since her last test. I requested the results from the test taken a month ago so I could compare them. Was the yeast infection better, worse, or the same? It was better.
   Elsa is prone to ear infections.  The vet says her ears react to the same allergens that caused her skin lesions. She has had many rounds of treatment. The vet always said to return in two weeks to check her ears.  I never did before this last treatment. Her ears looked clear. Why did I have to have the vet check them?  I don't know why I went back for the checkup after the last round.  
  The vet entered the room and declared, "Of course, she still has  an ear infection!" It's a complicated problem to deal with.  I told her I found a way to stop her skin outbreaks. The vet snarled, "That's temporary!"  Whatever the vets had prescribed wasn't even that.  Her lesions got worse.  She didn't say so, but I believe she wanted me to put her on medication.  I had her on medication at one point; it did no good.
She told me about one poor dog with intractable ear infections. They fixed the problem by sewing up his ears, preventing environmental allergens from entering them.
   That last bit gave me an idea. Elsa's skin problem had been solved by bathing her once a week and leaving a heavy coat of conditioner on. With her skin coated, the allergens couldn't affect her. I could do the same for her ears.  Every morning, I coated her ear flaps and outer ears with Intrasound gel, known in the family as "Makes No Claims." Also, every morning, I injected 3 mL of a half-and-half solution of apple cider vinegar and Epiotic, an ear-cleansing solution for pets, and every night, a solution of Epiotic and Intrasound powder. The results were rewarding. Where she had a +1 rating in both ears a month ago, there was no or negligible infection in her left ear. She still had a +1 in her right. That was the worst ear all along. I felt safe in assuming the infection was less. Yay!  I found a non-toxic solution to both her skin and ear problems.
    I asked the receptionist for a document proving Elsa had received her vaccine and headed down to Petco. I was halfway to town already. Elsa needed a grooming. I could take care of it immediately. 
   The groomer couldn't take her today but could tomorrow. I handed her the vaccine documentation. She looked at it and said, "I couldn't have groomed her today anyway. You're not supposed to do it immediately after receiving a vaccination. You needed to leave time in case the dog had a negative reaction. Also, you needed to wait for the pinprick from the infection to seal before bathing her." I had an appointment the next day at 9:30. Elsa and I headed home.
  I only had one student for the day, fifth-grade GV. We continued working on math. He grabbed a piece of paper. He wanted to take notes so he could tell his mom what we had done when she asked. We covered a great deal in half an hour. I didn't take notes. However, I see how logical thinking patterns are taught through math for the first time. There are other ways of teaching them. My dad taught us syllogistic and dialectic reasoning over dinner.