For anyone who is curious, the CDC recently studied and then put out new guidance about the effectiveness of masks, and double-masking, and what protection a person gets from wearing a mask on his or her own, vs. when two people are masked. We'd have to extrapolate from this to make educated guesses about the risk of having more people in a room, with different percentages of people masking. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/double-face-mask-covid-19-cdc/

Do you have an emergency vet in the area? I went to one for the first time a few months ago, and it was a great experience. A bit more expensive but not as crazy as I thought it would be. Cats always have problems on weekends, holidays, or in the middle of the night. It's like a cat law! Hopefully it's nothing 🙂

That's so interesting about generalizing. I completely agree. It's strange to think of generalizing applying to letters and sounds and reading words. I listened to a FB live with David Kilpatrick a couple weeks ago. He said something like, how do we know that phonemic manipulation is important to reading? Because every kid we've ever tested that has trouble with reading, has trouble with phonemic awareness and manipulation. A 3rd or 4th grader is as good as an adult on the tests they do. He said, if someone finds a kid with reading problems who does NOT have a problem with PA, send that kid our way! Because we'd like to study that kid. Because so far, we don't know of any kids like that.

Yes. Seems that dyslexia is a malfunction of many systems in the body. That's why reading research comes from so many avenues - neuroscience, psychology, etc. It's very cool! And a lot to take in. There's just SO MUCH! It's also why each kid needs to be taught differently. It aggravates me so much when schools say, "We do THIS for RTI, and we do THIS for SpEd," and that's the end of it. Not so "individualized," huh? The school I left over the summer has apparently gone over to the dark side in that respect. If you'll believe it, they're doing now "standardizing instruction" to use Fountas & Pinnell for ALL RTI and SPED, with the exception of Wilson for some "really serious" reading problems. (MIND EXPLODING NOW, pardon me while I freak out AGAIN!) My heart breaks for these kids.

This is pretty interesting. I just read a study - briefly, need to re-read - that looked at how good readers and poor readers perceive sounds. I'm not an expert, but I think the gist was that poor readers perceive the differences in sounds less specifically that good readers. The phrase they used was "unstable representation of sound." This fits with what I've observed about dyslexic kids, which is that they have a super hard time linking the printed letters to the sounds, automatically. All of my poor readers had extreme trouble even linking short vowels sounds to the corresponding printed letter. My personal hypothesis has been that these kids have never been able to perceive the sounds very distinctly from each other, so they get the vowel sound wrong about as often as they get it right. The result is just epic confusion. It's definitely possible to fix - using LiPS, other methods - but it takes a long time. It has to be done though! I think a lot of "reading programs" miss these kinds of things, these language processing things as you say. The article is called "Unstable Representation of Sound: A Biological Marker of Dyslexia." You can read the whole thing. I'd love others' input! https://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/8/3500

Where I live in Maine, it's somewhat touristy in the summer, and very pretty all year round. It's not as popular as other parts of the state - it's been relatively undiscovered until recently. Since the pandemic started, tons of people have been moving here from out of state. A house that's $350,000 and therefore impossible to even consider for me, is nothing to wealthy out of state people. Houses are selling in a day. DH and I are kicking ourselves for not buying two years ago, but back then we thought $200,000 was pricey and now we think it's pocket change. It's so strange how perceptions change depending on the market. I don't feel like we can trust our own opinions right now because everyone around us is rushing around trying to buy a house, any house. It stinks!

There's been a lot of talk about syllable division rules on the Spell-Talk listserv. People have been semi-arguing about it - apparently it's a heated topic 😄 The consensus seems to be that syllable division rules (and spelling rules in general) CAN be helpful, but are not helpful in ALL circumstances. We say so many words differently than where the "rules" say they should be divided. An example is "rapid." It would be divided rap/id (to keep the first vowel short), but we SAY raaaa-pid. In speech, we keep the first vowel short, but the p is heard in the second syllable. The goal is to have kids try a method to decode a word, and if it doesn't work (i.e. if the word sounds "nonsense"), try a different way. I was fascinated to hear the technique of pausing at each vowel, and words into dividing syllables that way. I'll quote from someone at Spell-Talk (who is in turn quoting an article!) because they said it better than I ever would: "Here's an excerpt from the Problems with the Six Syllable Approach article: https://www.ontrackreading.com/perspectives/multisyllabic-decoding-problems-with-the-six-syllable-approach Instead, a child should be taught the code, i.e., the viable pronunciation options for any particular spelling, and then taught a simple method of progressing through a word, from left to right, following simple rules that a six-year old can learn to apply, while testing the various options for the spellings that have more than one possibility. He should also not be taught traditional syllable breaks, but rather to break words into "chunks," tending to stop (with a few key exceptions) after the vowel sound in each chunk. Armed with enough code knowledge he will be able to easily learn to march left-to-right through words of many syllables, testing the vowel sounds and retesting as necessary, i.e., when his first attempt fails to yield a recognizable word. A few examples: "Growling" is chunked "grow-ling." If he's reading "the growling dog" and pronounces "grow" to rhyme with "blow" he would get a nonsense word and then instead try "grow" to rhyme with "how," simply applying his knowledge that the "ow" spelling can represent either sound. Now consider the two words discussed earlier, "rapid" and "vapor." He says "ra-pid," testing the first option for the letter "a" and immediately recognizes the word. He then says "va-por" (using the same short-a sound) and gets a nonsense word. So he tries the second option, the long-a sound and gets the word. Essentially he's being trained to do exactly the same thing most adults do when faced with the name of a new drug name that they haven't heard pronounced before, i.e., trying various viable pronunciations for the vowel and consonant spellings to see what sounds reasonable. Maybe they even finally realize they've heard it, but not seen it spelled before, as they recognize a familiar pronunciation from a radio advertisement." Jan Wascowitz wrote on Spell-Talk: "I can lose weight by running, but running isn't necessary for me to lose weight. Running can help me lose weight, but it doesn't build my upper body strength. Even though I can lose weight by running, it is not a good option for me because I have plantar fasciitis. It’s like that for memorizing rules based on letter patterns to divide a word into syllables. I can divide a word into syllables by memorizing rules, but memorizing rules isn't necessary for me to divide a word into syllables. Memorizing rules can help me divide a word into syllables, but it doesn't leverage my oral language system for phoneme-grapheme mappings to develop long term storage of lexical word forms in my long term memory in the same way. Even though memorizing rules based on letter patterns can help with dividing some words into syllables (there are quite a few exceptions!), it's not a great option for many language-impaired students. One clarification I want to add to what you wrote below – and this applies generally, not specific to this thread – is that we don’t want this to be misinterpreted as a free and open license to teach whatever we think works, or whatever we’re most comfortable with because that’s what we’ve always done, or… Yes, “the best teachers will be ready for the moment” and what they do in that moment must be grounded in science and research, be matched to a student’s specific needs, and be efficient because our instructional minutes are limited and precious. To be effective in our teaching, we need to truly understand the ‘why we do what we do’ (based on current research!!), we need to accept that reading (and writing!) really is rocket science with all sorts of layers and complexities that require depth of knowledge, and also diagnostic teaching, dynamic decision-making based on real time error analysis of the student’s performance, flexible thinking and problem-solving…. "

I agree. I teach reading to students 1:1 or 1:2. Zoom has been amazing for teaching reading. I can put everything on the screen that I need to, and kids can write on the screen. They also use a whiteboard and marker at their desk or table. They can use letter tiles and move them around, and I can see what they're doing. There are fewer distractions and the kids are more focused. Maybe I've just got a great group of kids this year, or something, but my efficiency as a teacher - in my particular niche - has actually improved by going online. My former district said that I couldn't work from home while others worked in person, because it wouldn't be equitable. Which, I totally understand from a contractual standpoint BUT is equitable what we're striving for above all, in a pandemic? Like @kokotgsaid, the fewer adults in the building, the safer for everyone that IS in the building.

Oh dear. That sound so hard. AIP has a lot more nuance than what I posted above. Like, black pepper is not allowed, nor cumin because they're seed-based spices. I think you can't cheat if you want to see progress. My friend had great success, but that's jut one person. Maybe if she hasn't scrupulously tried AIP, it would be worth a shot. But who knows... it's probably a lot easier to undertake a diet when you're not feeling like complete crap. https://www.thepaleomom.com/start-here/the-autoimmune-protocol/

I'm so out of my league here, but I follow a few bloggers that have improved their psoriasis through the autoimmune protocol diet. Basically you just eat meat, vegetables, and fruit. That's it. No grains (gluten OR gluten free grains), dairy, nightshades, and other things. Here's someone's story: https://www.phoenixhelix.com/2020/06/05/dans-healing-story-psoriatic-arthritis-psoriasis-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/ This blogger said his pain was an 8-20 on a scale of 1-10. I have a friend that healed some other autoimmune issues using the AIP. If I was so, so sick, I would definitely try eating a very restricted diet for a few weeks to see what happened. That is, if I could cook meat + veggies while feeling so bad.

I want to do this too! I would totally be a cat for... most of the rest of the year 😃 Problem is the kids are so savvy they would be able to do it, too, I'm sure.

I agree 100%. Yes, yes, yes! Thank you. Teachers go to school to learn how to teach, not how to fix EVERY problem a kid or family has. Society's priorities need to change.

It sounds like a good solution, both for the teachers who would be really unsafe in the classroom, and for the people who do feel comfortable being there. It sure beats kids being home alone all day. I left my in-school teaching job to teach remotely. I would not have been able to handle the stress of working in school because I didn't think people were going to take COVID seriously. (Turns out I was right about that one.) If a solution like this had been available, I could have stayed in my job. I don't begrudge anyone because it was my choice, but I do wish my school had been able to think outside the box a little.

I like Tinkyada and Jovial. And for some reason I never mind leftovers... it all tastes fine to me!

Whoa!!!! So cool.

Me, too. It's possible that they would allow her to stay home while the other kids are in person... schools everywhere have some kids at home and some kids in-person at the same time. Crying often gets people to reconsider.... especially if the principal is a man. Especially if you're on Zoom so he can see your face. Just sayin'. 🙂

My MIL has started sending me chain emails about covid vaccine reactions. Previously she was just including DH and his siblings, but now I'm on the list, too 😕

I saw this in my local paper, too.

I'm very sorry! ❤️

As far as I know, I don't have endometriosis, but I was also pretty debilitated for a day each month when I was a young teen. It was a lot better by the time I went to college. My doc also said to take ibuprofen before my period started. In my case, I started 2 days ahead. I still do this, and I use an app on my phone to remind me when it's about 2 days ahead.

Wow, thank you, everyone! I feel much better just knowing it's likely not something crazy, except for maybe bladder endometriosis... hoping it's not that. I'll try to lay off the coffee and high carb foods. I do get hypoglycemic if I don't eat fats and protein with meals and snacks, and I have been eating too many high-carb comfort foods. Thanks everyone! You rock 😎

... do I have to PEE all the time? Actually, it's more like I feel like I need to pee all the time. It's so annoying! It's not a UTI, and only shows up around when Aunt Flo is due, and goes away afterwards. It seems to be happening more as I get older, not less. I'm hoping it's normal. But it's really distracting for 24-36 hours!

No, I didn't! Waaaah. 😪 Our state CDC director said yesterday that we're only getting 20,000 doses each week for the next 3 weeks. That'll get us to 40% of people over 70 vaccinated. Progress, but not super fast progress.

My mom will be eligible for the vaccine when Maine is in the 65+ phase, which is the next one, whenever that starts. I've been tracking the vaccine doses given in Maine, and today we hit a high of 9,000 vaccines given in a day. At that rate, the whole population of the state could be vaccinated by summer! Very exciting. I don't think the state is banking on that, though... the website says that people under 65 with no underlying conditions won't start getting vaccinated till June. Hopefully we can speed that up a bit! Feeling encouraged right now. @MEmama

Sorry, I wasn't trying to play Dr. Google. I'm reading a book about autoimmunity right now and it's been on my mind. The author is making the case that there needs to be a genetic predisposition towards autoimmune disease + a trigger of some sort (infection, hormones, other stuff) + leaky gut. Obviously I don't know if it's true but that's what she says.