Reading Program Preview

So, at 9:45 this morning, the phone rang and it was Martha {the children’s librarian} calling to tell me she would be there to pick me up in 10 minutes. Since it was minus 11 degrees {I can’t remember the wind chill} I decided to wait for her in doors and the comparatively-speaking warmer area at the bottom of the stairs. She was a bit late because she thought I lived at a different number but eventually she pulled out her notes to check the address I had given her. We drove up to the school and went in the entrance I will be using.

Then she showed me the lunch room, the auditorium and the library. After I have eaten lunch {and I think reading happens during lunch, too}  with the student I am mentoring, we will go either to the auditorium or the library to read for the rest of the hour. Oh, and in the beginning, she said to let the kid pick the book. Some of the mentors and kids take turns but since this is supposed to be fun, it usually works out better if the kid has the main input.

She told me lots of things that she is required to tell her new people but most of them were common sense to me since I was a teacher for many years. The one she emphasised most was that after the hour was over, I was to walk the kid back to his classroom not just send him back. I got to meet the person who will be organizing a kid for me and she said she had a boy in mind but had to first make sure he still wanted to do this and then get his parents to sign a permission slip.

One thing I found very interesting is that this program is seen by the kids {and the parents} as a very positive thing and there is a waiting list of students. The good thing about this is that the children are very motivated, and, in fact, the kid is actually giving up his or her recess on that day to read! I got a handbook of things to do {Have fun! } and not do {I am not allowed to give the kid candy or bring presents even on his or her birthday}.

After all this was over, I walked back home. It took me about 15 minutes and that was avoiding Main St. most of the way home.  So, since it was 15 minutes all downhill going home, I can allow 30 minutes all uphill getting there next Thursday. And it only took me that long because the sidewalks were both slippery and slushy on Main Street on the little bit of it I have to go on before I take to the back streets. Actually, when the snow has gone, I will probably go out there and back home via the football field route which is longer but more exercise!   I passed by the drug store on the way home and almost called Fred because I had a sort of idea he needed a drug refill picked up. When I got home, I found I was right and I could have saved myself another trip if I had gone with my first impulse. However, it is all exercise, right, I said to myself as I went back.

Fred had a temporary replacement physical therapist come in this morning {Jean is on holiday skiing in Maine} and although he didn’t like her as much as he likes Jean, she did seem to know what she was doing and took him through what he had been doing for Jean. She didn’t add anything but told him to do his balance exercises and the leg-strengthening exercises at least twice a day {which is what he has been doing.}

I tossed a few ingredients in the direction of the bread machine and then ate lunch. By the way, taking the paddle out after the third {tiny} knead is working very well. The fully-baked loaf just slides out.

Until later…