Lets hear it for Thursday

[Shirlv]

Guess I won’t be sitting on the balcony at night anymore.

[cnq50b]

When our son was starting kindergarten 30 years ago, the public school was using a full-word recognition concept - no phonetics at all! We sent him to the Catholic school who used traditional methods for both reading & math. Tina, I wish that woman had documented her methods of teaching. I'd be willing to buy them to get Olivia a firm foundation. Her school is supposedly the highest-rated school in the district so I hope once they are attending class in person, they'll have more time to work on sounding out words. Until then, it's up to us to work with her on it.

[BarbaraRose]

Just about bed time for me. Got to get to bed earlier now since I have to be to work in the mornings. I was running late this morning and then remembered I needed to stop for gas. The gas pump wouldn't accept my debit card and told me to see the attendant. I got just inside the door when I realized I forgot my mask so had to go back to the car for that. Then back inside with cash to pay, then back to the car to pump the gas! Luckily, after all that, I managed to still get to work on time! Today was busy in the morning but got quiet in the afternoon. Guess everyone got their hair cut in the last couple days! My feet were OK with that!

Yes, I am included in on the excessive heat warning in CA. Sat, Sun, and Monday will be 120 here. I sure hope this is the last hurrah for those kinds of temps!! The fire danger is extremely high this weekend into next week as well. Am sure hoping no new fires get started.

Catherine, I was floored by how much homework your granddaughter has to do!! When I was in kindergarten, I just remember playing games, coloring, learning numbers and letters, cookies and milk, and nap time! That was enough for me! 14 assignments seems awfully excessive to me! (and for the parents as well!)

As for adding dirt to indoor potted plants...I did that once to a Peace Lily I had in my living room. I repotted it and added dirt from outside. One day I came out of my bedroom and saw a long thin brown thing on my livingroom carpet. I thought it was a stick and checked it out. Turns out it was an earthworm about 6 inches long!!! (probably a night crawler actually). I am sure it came from the dirt I added to the pot. I watered the plant before bed the night before and I suppose he crawled out to keep from drowning! I hate worms!! He went straight off the balcony back to his natural habitat! Yuck!

Shirl, as for the chewed up plants, bats don't eat plants, only bugs. Squirrels sleep at night. And rats, unless you live in a city with a lot of trash laying around or other unclean area, probably not a rat either. Not sure what it could be. Maybe some type of bug or caterpillar. I have seen Monarch caterpillars eat up a whole milkweed plant in a day so it can be done quickly. Hope you figure it out.

Off to bed to rest up for another day at work...

[JudyJB]

Way back in the mid-80s, I worked a few hours a couple of nights each week at the tutoring center at a local community college. Mostly, I just sat around and supervised tutors and answered the phone. We offered tutoring to college students, but also to high school students in the area.

So, one night I got a call from a parent who was really worried about his daughter learning to read. He wondered if we could help her. I had just gotten my masters in K-12 reading, so I chatted with this guy for a quite a while asking about what problems his daughter was having with reading, etc. My assumption was that this kid was maybe in 3rd or 4th grade.

Turned out he had taken his daughter into the local elementary school for what they called kindergarten roundup, or kindergarten registration, for fall. She was four. It turned out that during registration, the teacher had talked to the child and asked her some questions, maybe even given her some sort of test, and told the father that it was very likely his daughter would not be able to learn to read in kindergarten!!! I was furious and told him he should complain to the principal and school board and anyone else he could think of because NO ONE could predict that this kid would have difficulty learning to read. The nerve of them at that school!!

I hope that little girl went on to college and now makes more money than the expert teacher who predicted she would have trouble learning to read!

[BarbaraRose]

Judy, that is just awful! A remark like that could negatively affect a child's confidence in reading for the rest of her life! I am glad you were able to tell her father otherwise. I hope he was able to get her a new teacher or school.