Whan that April. Rose's English/Social studies teacher has made them all memorize and recite the entire prologue to the Canterbury Tales. John and I both only had to memorize the first 14 lines. Rose's first reaction was to go into her typical "I must memorize it/I can't start now" self-defeating dilemma. Then she got started and worried that she wasn't learning it fast enough. Then I would hear her reciting in the shower and she would have me look at the paper while she practiced. On the second day back at school, they all stood up and recited together. If you didn't know any more you sat down. Rose made it second to the end. One the third day back she made it all the way. Now she runs around reciting it at top speed.

Bat mitzvah prep has begun. We had our first meeting with the Bat Mitzvah tutor Wednesday. The tutor told us she was in great shape and only had three more prayers to learn plus the Torah portion. This time Rose seemed very calm and focused. She immediately started practicing and had John put the recordings (the prayers are sung) on an old iphone, so she could listen to them walking to school and on the bus. Then at bedtime she freaked out. We seem to be back to focused. We also went to a Bar and Bat Mitzvah today. We'll be going twice a month.

GEMS met Thursday. Have I mentioned this before? It's the Girls in Engineering, Math, and Science program that Rose and five of her friends are doing. It's very cool. Free. Lots of hands on science. This month they watched how termites reacted to scent trails.