The girls watched Steve Demme’s video on how to memorize the Greek alphabet a short while back. Mr Demme uses a number of mnemonic devices to help kids and parents remember some of the letters, some of which are pretty comical. Now, Mr Demme explains in the video that some of the letter names are intentionally mispronounced to help develop a mini-narrative that acts as a memory aid. After giving the story with the mondegreens he reviews the written alphabet on his white board and gives the correct pronunciation of the letters. We’ve also gone back over the corrected alphabet several times ourselves, when Dojogirl was working on mastering it.

I think she’s pretty much got it, and our Banana is coming along as well. It’s not something they need at the moment, but it’s good for them to do memory work and since they enjoyed it I’m pleased for them to be following up on the video in their own time. I hadn’t expected the Commandant to remember any of the video but we had her watch it too. She enjoys being included with the “big girls” and since I’m thinking of using the Math-U-See Primer for her come fall, it’s good that she finds Mr Demme amusing.

So Dojogirl is out in the kitchen washing dishes, and she’s reciting the Greek alphabet aloud. The Banana is listening quietly as she does her own chores. Everything is going smoothly. “….. Lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron—” Then from the Bug’s bedroom I hear, “No! Oh my corn!” The Commandant has been listening and she feels it is her duty to “correct” her big sister!

For those of you who haven’t seen the video, let me explain. The memory cue for these five letters is a little story about a farmer who raised little “lambdas” and these beasts were a bit confused, thinking themselves to be cows. So instead of bleating they say, “Mu… nu….” To remember the next two letters we have to imagine that the “lambdas” have gotten into the farmer’s field and are having a good munch on his crop. When he discovers this he exclaims, “K’see! Oh my corn!”

As I said, Mr Demme did a great job of explaining that he was twisting the pronunciation in order to make the letter names more memorable. That part made perfect sense to the rest of us, but the Commandant didn’t quite “catch it.” Apparently she did catch the sequence of letters, though!

It’s amazing what a 3-1/2 year old can learn! (Now I wonder if I’m going to have to go through un-learning it with her? Maybe we should have waited a bit before she saw that video…..)

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Well, a school roof in Quebec has actually collapsed! It happened at École Saint Donat, in the Gaspesie village of Maria. Luckily, it was over the Easter weekend and the children were not in class. All the same, two people were taken to hospital to be treated for shock. The authorities can’t draw any conclusions yet about why the roof collapsed, but the rain and accumulated snow are suspected to be the cause.

Neither the Eastern Shores School Board nor the Commission Scolaire des Chic-chocs have posted any news on their web sites, though one would hope that some decision about the safety of other schools in the region will be made before the end of the Easter break.

Meanwhile temperatures in the Montreal area are not expected to be above zero until at least Tuesday, and then more rain is expected. The Lester B Pearson School Board may be waiting for the accumulated snow to melt, but if so we’re likely looking at a few more days of school closures this month. Regardless of whether the snow melts, it would be reassuring to see the board follow the CSDM’s example of inspecting each school before reopening.

We’ve had as much griping this winter about snow removal budgets as we have about the snow itself. The city has delayed snow removal on the roads for a couple of days knowing warm weather was coming and the snow would melt so they wouldn’t have to pay for roads to be cleared. Great strategy - if you’re not too worried about all the people who can’t get around, or the danger the huge snow banks pose to our children and disabled people.

We’ve got roofs collapsing for real now and whether or not it’s expensive to take the proper safety measures, they are absolutely necessary at this point. I’m sure there is a fancy Christmas party or other function that can be downscaled, or a few “business” lunches that can be cancelled. Maybe they can just sell off the stash of Glenlivet at the borough offices. As for the school boards, I’m sure they’ll find the money buried in their budgets somewhere too. It’s time they started using more of their funds to benefit more of the kids in their care, anyway.

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!