Caroline's Cookie Book Forum

My dear friend Caroline just alerted me to the fact that she is currently writing a book column for Cookie magazine.

Please check out her writing at

http://www.cookiemag.com/entertainment/2006/11/bookclubnov

and leave a message in the forum if you like what you see!

School's in

Wowee, I had no idea it's been so long since my last post. I knew that I wasn't posting, but that's because I've been busy posting a lot in other places, or just reading and learning throughout the summer. I've been having a fine time. And, I'll admit to not tutoring during the summer months. I'm afraid to say I got used to having Monday evenings to myself.

In any case, October came and I had every intention of getting down to Cliveden to see my Girls, but I had a long cold virus and then we went to Vermont & Canada over Columbus Day weekend, which was excellent. So, I finally got back to tutoring last monday night.

And I have a new student. He's seven years old (just days older than the girls), loves math (typically he'd rather be in math than in reading!) and is having trouble sounding out words. Clyde actually worked with him for the last few weeks, because he was showing up on Wednesday nights. Anyway, I was a little flummoxed because now I find that the Twins had tutoring throughout the summer and have advanced exponentially. They aren't fabulous readers, but they are way better than they were. M particularly.

So what did I do?

I played hang-man with them. ;-)

Over the weekend I need to dig out my book of word family activities, games, etc because I can't find it and I think it's going to come in handy.

Walt Patterson

I want to plug this website:

Walt Patterson on Energy

If you have any interest in power, energy, sustainability, the nuclear debate, et cetera - this is the place to go to read about the subject. Through this site, Patterson has made available for download all his writings, from 1970 to today.

For more about who he is, and why he is qualified to write and speak about these issues, read this mini-bio.

Full disclosure: Walt Patterson is my Dad.

Tutoring Update

It has been requested that I update you on the tutoring project. So I'm happy to oblige.

I have continued to work with the twins and - with Anthony when he came - since my last post on the subject, back in April.

The twins seem to be advancing fine with reading. Much as I personally loathe Junie B Jones, they are taking turns reading chapters out of her first book. I hope to have them through the second book by the time school wraps up in June. I had high hopes to work hard with them through the summer and have them well prepared for school in the autumn, but unfortunately they are being taken off to California to visit with family throughout the summer. The Grandma has arranged a tutor for them while they are away - and I will be sending a reading assignment with them, too. It's the best I can offer without having them to work with face to face.

They are reading much better, most of the time. T still lags behind M, but both have improved a great deal since we began working together.

A friend from the House told me his password for a website called edhelper.com, which creates printable worksheets on a variety of subjects and grade levels. So in order to better work with each child each week, I have been creating worksheets geared to each individual level. Sad to say, the girls are both lacking in math and do seem to be showing signs of dyslexia with numbers - writing 81, 19, 20, etc. Perhaps it will change with lots and lots of practice. I hope so, for their sakes. They haven't had much chance to work with Clyde, because he always has bigger children and they obviously need more one on one time.

I have even considered asking to have each child come on a different day, so that I can work with them separately. So there's no competition for affection and attention between them.

It's really difficult to give them all enough attention and praise, especially when they often come to class exhausted. This past week they showed up, wiped out from weekend dance recitals. Their Gma had brought Clyde and I a raw food meal to share, as we rarely manage to eat before we start working. When she had left and I had tried to work with the girls for 30 minutes with little luck - I broke out the food and fed them. They both INSTANTLY perked up and started chattering and telling me stories about life at home. And they were both instantly able to focus on their work.

There's definitely a lesson in there about feeding children healthy foods. Although I continue to worry about their overall nutrition. However, that's not my job, I guess.

Anthony didn't show up this week. I had started him on a Magic Tree House book last week. Possibly not the best choice, because it's about dinosaurs, and he finds sounding out aloud a gargantuan task. But he seemed to have less problems psychologically about reading a book for his grade level. On the other hand, he does that thing where he guesses the word and quickly looks at me to see if I make a face or give him the thumbs up for it. Usually the guess is wrong and I have to say over and over again "Sound it out". I've tried to show him how to break the word in to syllables so that it is easier and shorter to sound out. But it's very slow going.

I'm happy to have edhelper.com to do these worksheets, though, because it makes it easier for me to set him something to do while I work with the girls. Last week I had him go do Reader Rabbit for a while, but it's a grade level lower than he is, and I'm sure he found it dull.

At the end of each class, I read to all the kids. Right now we are reading Ramona Quimby, Age 8. I am enjoying it - probably more than the girls - although they do seem to enjoy it and laugh quite a bit. Anthony is not amused by it, and I haven't been able to get him to tell me what he is interested in at all. One week we just had boys, and I read some Matt Christopher, but again, Anthony showed all signs of being bored out of his skull. And this after telling me he liked sports. So I don't know what to do about that. I told him that when we are done with this Ramona, he can pick the next book. Perhaps he'll choose something scary? Something wizard-y? I don't know. I don't hold out great hopes that he'll be open to choosing, because i'm doubtful about how well he comprehends the book titles, but, we'll see.

7-Up Natural Makeover

So, last night we were watching Top Chef, and kept seeing commercials for 7-UP, which has been "made over" with all natural ingredients. Clyde looked at me, growling under my breath, as I do most of the time when watching drug and food commercials now -- and so today I looked up the ingredients. Because, let's face it - 7-UP is still a SODA, and thus it's unlikely it's very healthy.

These are the new ingredients for 7-UP natural:

Filtered carbonated water
High fructose corn syrup
Natural citric acid
Natural flavors
Natural potassium citrate

OK. So what the commercial doesn't say is - this is still a SODA and that makes it an unhealthy choice for well, everybody. HFCS is not a natural ingredient. It is a highly refined ingredient. If they were sweetening it with natural ingredients you'd see honey or molasses on the list.

"Natural flavors" are usually questionable - and sometimes include MSG. Probably not, in this case, but it's worth thinking about when you're buying other foods.

I'm equal parts fascinated and horrified by the deceptions in advertisements. I'm still reading Food Politics, by Marion Nestle - it's a pretty dense book. But eye opening.

I suppose I should be more horrified by the ingredients they had in it before, because do we really need a ton of sodium in our soda?

But I refuse to suggest that this is a rise for anyone who wants to add a healthy zing to their step.

Spring into life

I am also now seeing clients for my six month health program, so if you are interested in a free one hour health consultation, please contact me. Three of my four clients are long distance, so I am not so much seeing them as speaking with them. Don't be shy.

If you would like to sit and talk for one hour about yourself, your health and any cravings you might be dealing with, please contact me at http://www.nourishpassion.com

Happy Spring

Good morning!

Yesterday I went to Cliveden Park to meet with one of my clients, and then on to the House to see if any children showed up. It is the Easter break ("spring break") holiday here, so mostly they are out of school and thus unlikely to think they should be having tutoring.

However, as I was walking from Ross Street over to Musgrave, I was hailed by about eight of the kids we normally see in a given week. Including, surprise surprise, little R from last summer. R who never came back after school started. I have seen his big sister continually, but had been told eventually, that R wanted to watch TV instead of come to tutoring.

Anyway, when I arrived at the House, Clyde was there and he had brought me a sandwich for supper. We ate together with the door open to the glorious day until one of the ladies of the group walked in and sat to chat with us. Shortly after her arrival, who should appear but R, his sister B and, A my new child from a couple of weeks ago!

So R picked out a book, B sat down and started reading her own book and A sat with a snack. R read me the first chapter of Sideways Stories from Wayside School, and when A was finished eating, I had him pick a book to read as well. R went on reading the Sachar, and in fact, proceeded to read the ENTIRE book in front of me in an hour and a half!! I haven't read the book so didn't have the chance to ask him if he really understood what he is reading, but he said he did. And I notice he reads fast aloud, so perhaps he was skimming. But I was truly impressed. He's only seven.

A is eight years old, and we established last night that he doesn't understand how to sound words out. He the child that froze up when I asked him to sound something out in a previous blog entry. This time he froze up again, but I tried hard to explain to him that not knowing how didn't mean he was "stupid" or "dumb" or all those bad words. And that I wasn't going to call him names for not knowing. But that I needed to understand where he got stuck, so that we could work on it together. He loosened up a little bit, and listened to me when I spoke.

He picked out Danny & the Dinosaur to read, and read it, haltingly, from beginning to end. When he doesn't know a word, he guesses at it and keeps on going - as if speeding over it will make things fine. Unfortunately when he does that, it often throws off the next few words.

There were a few instances of switching letters, but again, I couldn't tell if that was because it was read at speed. (e.g., three instead of there). I also tried to get him to look at the pictures for help with words he didn't know. But you see, he's eight. It's embarrassing to him that he doesn't get on well with reading. And heavens, let's face it, he's eight and he's having a hard time with Danny and the Dinosaur.

After Danny, he read another, easier I Can Read book called The Three Friends (or something). It was easier because it had an emphasis on word family words (cat, sat, rat) etc. And he almost breezed through it. His reading style normalized when it was easier, because he got more involved with the story. After that, I had him read One Fish Two Fish purely (on my part) to see how he did. He read the whole book, again in some parts haltingly, and made myself and Ms. Barbara giggle. Because we hadn't read it in a long time, and parts of it are funny. We were not giggling at A himself.

When he finished reading, I picked out a Matt Christopher book and read them five chapters of the story. R was listening in rapt attention. A, who had told me he liked sports, was bored and fidgeted. I told him that next week, he can pick out a book for me to read aloud. At eight, R & B left to walk home. A called his mother, but she wasn't home. While we waited for her to arrive, I asked him if he liked his new school. What was his teacher like, etc. He told me that he had not liked his old teacher - in a different part of Philadelphia, because she had been mean to him. I was not surprised. I mean, that he had been held back by bad teaching.

His Mom arrived with her two younger babies in tow (5 and 3yo) and she and I spoke a little about what could be done with A. She wonders if he could use more tutoring from elsewhere to give him help -- and I'm sure that might help, but I don't know if she can manage it financially. Although I didn't say that. She's in college herself, you see. And there's no husband or father living with them. So A is even more cursed because he doesn't have a male role model to guide him. He's a very shy, introverted boy. Mostly I tried to impress upon her the idea that she should read to him and let him read to her, and that they should both see the book when either is reading, and that she should show him by example how to sound a word out loud. This dawned on her with new understanding, so perhaps it will be of use. In any case, I said I would see A next Monday night and we would go from there. I shall have to figure out what to do about him.

The girls didn't come, and nor did the new girl, Kelly. I have decided to tell Kelly's mother that there is no need for me to work with her if she is in the other program - reading stars. Kelly reads well and only occasionally needs help. I think that I need to focus my energies on the three children who really need my help.

Anyway, that's the Cliveden Update for now.

Conundrum

A friend recommended The Dragon of Doom, which is in the Moongobble and Me series by Bruce Coville - for the 8yo boy and 7yo girl I'm working with in the second class on Monday evening. I love the story, and the girl seems to be enjoying it too.

The only trouble is that the 8yo I'm starting to work with is finding it too difficult. I don't have a good idea about where he's coming from, but from what I can see, he either doesn't know or isn't confident about sounding words out and at one point when I asked him to just try to sound it out aloud, he completely shut down. He stared at the paper so hard I thought he was crying. After waiting a few moments, I threw the reading back over to 7 and she read the pages much more easily. Before we stopped for the night I asked 8 to read another paragraph (Moongobble's overheard first spell) with made up words in it (izzle, biggle, etc) and he read it willingly, but with hesitation.

When I asked him, he agreed that this was a little too hard, but that he didn't want to read something easier. However, I'm here to tell you that he's guessing at more words than he's able to easily read and understand.

So I'm not sure what to do about that. 7 is pretty well placed, in as much as she's reading & comprehending most of the words on the page. I suspect if I asked her to read ahead, she could do so without having to ask for much clarification.

So - do I have them continue at the same pace, or should I have her read something more challenging and give him something easier?

In which case, how am I going to manage the time in order to give them both my attention?

I'd also like to have time to read a classic to them. Some Dahl, or Narnia, or .. well you get the picture. But it's hard to split the time between giving them practice at reading and giving them the chance to hear someone else read. I never know which is more important.

Commitment

A friend from school and I have committed to walk together every day. In the physical sense, we are not walking together, as she lives in Massachusetts, but we have set a time and an intention to walk for a specific amount of time together each day. It has only been two days, and I have only been able to get out and walk once; this morning.

So I walked, and then I came home and conquered the yellow and red striped day lily in the back bed. It has gotten big and I want to plant a cherry tree in the bed as spring comes along. So, I dug it up and left it's parts on the path in the garden until I have the energy to go and move it to the trash.

But, I digress.

It's a beautiful day here and as I walked I found myself peeking into other people's gardens and wishing I could randomly plant hundreds of crocuses, because so few people seem to bother and they are such sweet flowers at this time of year.

Every year come autumn, I think, I'd like to buy more crocus and daffodils and plant them, because I love them and they seem to me to be quintessentially reminiscent of childhood, along with snowdrops and aconites. I grew up in gardens. I learned to live and breathe with plants. In recent years I haven't purchased more bulbs for one reason and another - lack of money, being out of the country, having bought bulbs that didn't come up.

This year, I'm going to buy a whole bunch of bulbs and plant them willy-nilly.

And an addendum:

Some time has passed today between starting and publishing this entry. I went back outdoors to put up a bird feeder and throw out the day lily parts, and was tempted to dig up the other elderly daylily plant. And so I tried. And I broke the head of my fork clean off. I have other forks, but poop. So much for my bravado at taking on the plant single-personedly.

People will come

My class has gone from two to seven in the last two weeks, and the ages range from six to twelve. I'm structuring it so that I have the three youngest and most challenged (aged 6 & 7) earliest, followed by the two slightly older (7 & 8), and then I have to figure out how to squeeze in the eldest of one family (12) and another boy who's age I don't know.

If anyone has spares or finds free/cheap copies of the A to Z mysteries or Magic Tree House books, I can use them. Also, extra copies of Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad books or any other level 2 & 3 I Can Read series.

Let me know if you need a mailing address.

And, thank you.

If it's not one thing...

Urg, if it's not one thing, it's another. Recently I've been at school in New York a lot. And when I'm home from school, I seem to have an uncanny knack at putting myself out of circulation with one thing or another.

Two weeks ago this morning, I slipped on ice near the back door and fell down the porch steps into the icy grass. I whumped myself a good one - not breaking a bone, but managing to cover most of one side of my ass with a large black bruise. It's still painful, although the outer bruising has gone.

This week I seem to have a stomach bug. Not throwing up, I'm grateful to report, but spending a lot of time in the bathroom all the same. When not in the bathroom, just feeling queasy and wishing I could eat something.

I held one sugar blues talk, and am holding a second this wednesday coming. I hope to hell I'm feeling better come the weekend, because I need to write up notes on what to say. I don't feel up to it at the present time.

However, I wanted to post something, because I've been so absent lately.

Nourish Passion & Reach Wellness

I wanted to draw your attention to the website about my new holistic health counselling practice:

NourishPassion.com

Please use the contact form to let me know when you are ready to schedule your free health consultation!

Sugar Blues

Blog silence these last few days has been because I am preparing to give a presentation on sugar and it's effects on the body. I had thought I was all ready to do that, but it seems I'm not actually prepared, however much bravado I might have about speaking in public. So I'm doing a lot of listening to a pre-recorded lecture, taking notes and re-writing them to sound more like me, and designing and printing flyers for handouts. There will even be some cookie baking in preparation - using natural sweeteners rather than cane sugar -- so it's keeping me occupied. The lecture is tomorrow evening.

Following that I'm off to New York again this weekend for my fifth class. We'll be hearing from representatives of both the Atkins camp and the Zone diet camp this weekend, among other speakers. It should work itself out into an interesting time. It usually is. And I'm usually the owner of a worn-out brain at the end of each class.

We didn't go to Cliveden yesterday because it was a holiday and we decided to take advantage of it. So we painted the kitchen a dark yellow. Not as dark as I was expecting - not dark dark, which is fine, but golden -- because Clyde asked for a satin finish. So we have an unexpectedly shiny kitchen. And it's an oil based paint, so pricey and difficult to repaint. I'm not really complaining, but i think it's sort of odd. In daylight it isn't as shiny because the light doesn't reflect. Anyway, you'd have to see it to appreciate our humour about the situation.

Now we're thinking about cabinets and cabinet footprints and whether I'd prefer a few wide, deep shelves along one wall.

Oooooh, I forgot...

...to mention that we had four computers installed back on MLK Day! Although I don't think anyone but us has turned them on, yet, and no one but us had a clue what to do with them. Hence the buying of the RR software for myself (as we have friends' kids in here fairly frequently) with the premise of using it for Cliveden Park House, too.

Among the Hidden

I'm feeling much better, although still a little hoarse.

This weekend I finally read Among the Hidden, by Margaret Petersen Haddix. It's been on my list for a long while, and I think I picked it up cheap for Cliveden House and then borrowed it back. Now I'm keen to get and read the other books in the series and read the whole lot in a gulp. I'm really happy to know the name of the newest book - even though I have about seven to read until it comes out later this spring. I'm not including it with this post because it's kind of a spoiler.

Anyway, tomorrow I go back to tutoring. I plan on reading to the girls (and whoever else appears) and then having them read to me. Going back to the original idea. I know it's important to work on the word families, etc. but the thing really is that I don't think they have any examples set to them by their families at home. Reading isn't just about knowing the words, it's about using expressions and intonation and hearing the story as you read.

I also picked up some Reader Rabbit software and will install it on the computers before the kids show up after school. I have kindergarten, preschool and first grade reading skills CD Roms, with two CDs with extras, including a basic math concepts one. I think it will be okay, but shan't know until I get down there. The thing is, the RR software pretty much demands use of speakers and/or headphones, and we don't have those. I'm hoping it will still be explanatory for the kids with just the onscreen prompts.

On top of those things, I also have several sets of cards made up to play word family memory games and to try and reinforce the solution to the problems we've been seeing with bs & ds and writing numbers backwards, I plan to take some sort of tactile tool with me to help with learning our letters etc. That is to say, ketchup, clay or sand to make letters in and with. It's a little complicated, but this is a suggestion that was recently made to me for the girls in particular.

I'm certainly open to more suggestions on how to address these sorts of learning difficulties. The best i can think at the moment is just to have them practice, practice, practice.

Acute bronchitis

Or as the old (from earlier today) joke goes, not all that cute. Lots of coughing and little relief. Thanks to a trip to the Doctor I have an inhaler to try and get some medicine down the tubes that need it. We think it's viral and hopefully it will clear up in the next few days. I'm especially hopeful of that because I have things to do and people to see, and I've had this thing for eleven or so days now and it's getting old.

I haven't seen my kids in nearly three weeks because of feeling poorly. I didn't think it kind to share with others, although I still went up to New York to my class last weekend. At that point I thought lemsip direct doses might keep it in check.

Anyway, there's lots to catch up on, but my brain is too fuzzy to write right now.

If I haven't called you, this is why. I don't have much of a voice at present.

Are You There, God?

Interestingly to me, the only book that I have seen go missing from the Cliveden Park House library since I have started building it, has been Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume.

I'm actually fairly impressed that someone took that one. Just because it indicates to me that we were useful in some way. I haven't made a big deal about it, and frankly I imagine that whoever took it probably just borrowed it and then forgot about returning it. But I wish them well.

However, we do have an opening for a new/used copy if anyone spots one in the next few months.

More about Computers

The first group of people who wanted to give us computers is installing four next Monday - Martin Luther King Day. We don't have furniture, really, except a few picnic tables. So it's probably going to have to be those.

The big company will be calling Clyde this week, but the latest news seems to be that they'll be giving us twelve. I don't know how many of them will be brand new, but I'm not picky.

I do plan to go out and browse/window shop at CompUSA this afternoon. I hear the Reader Rabbit software is pretty good (according to my four year old niece). And it occurred to me last night that we could get language software for those of the kids who are learning Spanish. Clyde seems to be all about using the computers for internet access, but I keep harking back to my primary school days when we played a really basic game called Fletcher's Castle with the then brand new, BBC Micro machines. Fletcher's Castle was a teaching program for strategy, I think. I loved it, anyway. I just can't imagine not using these computers for actual teaching, as opposed to surfing.

Which is not to say that the internet can't teach you anything - but it's easier to supervise what people are doing if they don't have that option.

Word Families - the return

I had anticipated having Mike join me on Monday night, but not Sam. So I was more than a little pushed out of my stride by having an extra child to try and figure out. Consequently I didn't do as much with the twins as I would have liked.

I had prepared a set of word family endings typed and printed from my home computer. I had cut them into small rectangles and mixed them all up in a bag. The families were all the two letter -a ones and all the two letter -i ones.

The first thing I set the twins to was sitting down with the bag of each set and sorting them out for for me. They didn't get it at first, and M was especially tired and not keen at all, but they slowly did a fair bit of the work. I immediately saw that I had given them too complicated a task, but by then I was trying to listen to Sam reading, and I left them to their devices as long as I could.

After a time, T had finished sorting all the -i endings, so I asked her to put them in ABC order by pile. It took a long while to be able to explain this so that she understood, but she finally did and seemed to manage it. After a few minutes of telling me that she didn't want to do it.

M struggled for a long while with the -a endings. In hindsight, as I said, I gave her too big a task. On tuesday I thinned out the piles so that the next time I could have each child work with two endings.

After Sam read Hop on Pop, with much interruption from the girls - I had him work on the -i endings, while T read to me. She couldn't settle on a book and we read parts of Froggy Bakes a Cake and two others that I now can't remember. It was really difficult to concentrate my help with all three kids.

When M stopped organising her word endings - she really didn't get it - I had her pull out some homework and we started her on that.

With ten minutes to the end of the girls' night, I sent Sam upstairs to work with Clyde for a few minutes. Mike came down to sit with me, and then the girls packed up and went home to finish homework and fall into bed. It's a long night for them.

After a couple of easy starts, Mike read the first two chapters of The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse, a Chet Gecko mystery. He seems able to read, but is only reading the words, not the story. I suggested to him that we just work our way through the whole series. Because by the end of this book he'll have a handle on the characters and won't have to learn them again in starting a different book. He seemed okay with that, although he queried that I meant we read the whole book that night.

This Thing Is Bigger Than The Both Of Us

Welllll, alrighty then.

Last Monday night, the first one I chose to tutor in January, our numbers doubled. I went from "my two girls" to adding two boys and - sort of - an older girl.

These extras are Sam, Mike and Shania.

Sam is seven, but reads less well than the twins, who are six. He lacks confidence, even with Hop on Pop. His older brother, Q, seems to enjoy reading. But Sam hasn't figured it out yet.

Mike is about ten (I've been given differing information about what grade he's in), but originally told me that he reads at a 3rd grade level. He actually doesn't read that poorly, but needs a lot of practice to "get it" with fluency. Right now he's able to read the words, but not hear the story.

Shania, I think, is his sister. They have different last names, but I guess that's neither here nor there with these kids. Anyway, she's about thirteen. She can read, and reads aloud when given the chance to read anything. I don't know how much of the story she understands. She's asked for recommendations, but reads a few paragraphs of each book (aloud) and puts it back on the shelf. The only thing she's picked up of her own accord more than once is an elderly Garfield comic book she found in the big book case. And suddenly I'm grateful for the huge box of Garfield books that's sitting in my attic room, waiting to join the fold of donated books in Cliveden Park. (Thanks, Imagine!)

Clyde also worked with most of these kids for a time, as well as Q, and his regular gang upstairs. He tells me that Mike is just "lost" in math. He doesn't know most of his times tables, but his school is working on fractions and percentages. I myself am easily confused by numbers, but apparently all of this is makes school/life harder for this child. Clyde relates that Mike is far enough behind right now that it is unlikely they will be able to find a way to catch up with his learning this year. That doesn't mean he won't try, of course. But Clyde isn't sure how to best approach things yet. And Mike doesn't seem to mind, which is certainly a challenge, also.

A Happy and Healthy New Year....

... to you all.

I hope 2006 brings goodness and grace to all our lives.