Popular Demand - 4th and Last

This is John Muir School complete with cactus and sun.

I don't think Renoir has much to worry about (if he were still around to worry) but she might give Grandma Moses some competition one of these days.

Rochelle loves to draw and draw and draw.

Funny child. She's the athlete of the group and always the one with the most bumps and bruises. She also has this facet of her personality.

Her reading ability has gone through the roof. She could read this over my shoulder with no problem as long as she's not pushed. When we put her in Special Ed at the end of first grade, she had problems with "cat" and "dog". They pushed phonics and repetition and it worked. I can see her sounding everything to herself, finally saying a big word syllable by syllable and then the whole word. They're worried about the tests of course, bureaucrats that they are. She isn't as fast as they'd like. If this weren't a family blog, you'd hear exactly what I think of the tests and NCLB. I'd have to google dyslexia but I know many successful people are dyslexic. They compensate and so does she. Hers seems to be mild; she just needed the thorough grounding in basics and the time to get it right. Reading speed isn't crucial, comprehension is, and right now her comprehension level is above Rebecca's who gets in too much of a hurry and can't remember a word she just read. Rochelle can usually tell me the whole story once she's read it. She will still test below basic but I don't care. This year we've focused on math and she's doing well. Same principle - let her take her time and learn one thing before she moves to the next.

I make a lot of noise and sometimes people listen. She'll probably stay in Special Ed for a while at least. Middle School next year and they're already working on getting her into the best of the four we have here. Elcie made it into the second best. They offered to transfer her but she's doing well so she may as well stay put. She and Rochelle are Honor Roll working at their ability level.

How did I get started on this?

Popular demand was Dmitri and Andie D on my email so far this morning. Here the drawings are plus one.

I started to put the drawings on last night but it was late and I couldn't make up my mind between the scanner and the camera. Sometimes the scanner has trouble with drawings but these worked fine and I've learned how to adjust the settings somewhat. Also how to rotate so you don't have to stand on your heads. Picasa2 this time, it's the easiest to fool around with and my scanner automatically sends there. It still isn't working with multiple photos though.

Chuck roast on for dinner with a big onion, garlic, basil, and oregano. I'll cook a bunch of potatoes and carrots after a while and add some celery and mushrooms to the roast. Sometimes I buy a roast on sale and cut it up for stew - much cheaper these days than stew meat. An extra $/pound to cut up meat is silly. It's the same meat. This time though, it's roast which will turn into roast beef hash tomorrow if I have enough left over.

Counting down - less than two days before school starts. It means I'll be getting up around six again. On the other hand, Elcie is on her bus (door to door) before seven and frick and frack are gone by 7:45 at the latest. Everything's a tradeoff. Not that I don't miss their rowdy selves but the quiet is nice. Speaking of quiet, it's much too quiet at the moment. Perhaps I should take a look.

Ray still doing well. I'll get a photo on here eventually of him laughing. He's doing more of it.

Talk to you later.