Elcie's reading log finally makes sense. She is reading books that count toward her grade and are geared toward her capabilities. She reads and then writes a 3 sentence summary for each section she reads. Someone out there finally got smart and it's only taken them six years.
She has sunk the Titanic one last time, finished up Harriet Tubman and started on Dr. Martin Luther King. I'm glad she's heading that direction and I'll check with her teacher to see if there are other books on some of the lesser known pioneers and black history. I want the girls to know their heritage and it's difficult, even with the best of intentions, for me to really understand how hard the struggle was and in some ways still is.
I must be ready for girls to come home. Just wandered out to kitchen and rearranged my 6 foot by 4 foot pegboard. Every kitchen utensil with a hole in it hangs there - big on one side, small on the other. Ray puts dishes away faithfully but has yet to grasp the concept of big and small so once in a while when I'm restless or thoroughly bored I shift it all around. I've had that pegboard for at least 25 years; repainted a few times (it's light blue to match the kitchen at the moment), and it will probably outlive me. It's my trademark. I hate drawers where I can never find anything and I've accumulated far too many kitchen gadgets. The pegboard saves me.
Now I'm done unless I think of something else. I should start doing this as a draft and just keep adding to it. Oh well.
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4 comments:
Yay on the reading log!
Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker is a wonderful, complex historical novel for young adults.
I will see if I can find a copy of it around here and send it your way.
The pegboard is sheer genius! I will now be trying to figure out how to use one in my kitchen! Post a picture some day okay?
Sounds like she's reading some good stuff. Good to know kids read more than the Internet still...
A couple of years ago, my niece did a project for her school science fair where she researched the history of the street light and wrote about the guy who invented it, Garrett Augustus Morgan. This was because at some point before, she had asked me how they worked -- I didn't know, but I came up with one way to accomplish the task (hindsight is easy). We made a model and everything. It was actually pretty cool, if I do say so myself.
Anyway, apparently they didn't want models like that as science projects, but a comment from one of the judges totally pissed me off. They said something to the effect that Cassie should have pointed out that Morgan was African-American since it was black history month. I would have made a big stink about that if Rachel and Cassie's folks would have let me.
You see, we didn't think it relevant to mention it. Without that, the message was "here's a clever guy that invented something." If you say "Morgan, an African-American, invented the street light", your message is "here's a black guy that invented something." The subtext there is "That's notable since black people aren't usually that clever." Of course, that's a load of bullshit.
It's very similar to the dreaded "some of my best friends are African-American..."
Oh bugger. I forgot the link I was going to post: Cassie's Traffic Signal Links
I dunno if that will work, but it's worth a shot.
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