CSDfamilies Network

http://www.csdf.k12.ca.us/outreach/events.html

To find theaters showing captioned movies, you can use Fomdi - a search engine specialized in locating open and closed captioned shows.

It is not perfect, but can be very helpful:

http://www.fomdi.com/

CSD's Outreach Department has a lot of useful information for families. Amongst other things, they keep a list of Links for Parents that point to a good number of additional resources.

The link to this list can be found here.

We all know how reading is important, and how hard it can be for some deaf kids to catch up and improve their reading skills.

One very important resource people may not be aware of is that the Accelerated Reader (AR) program offers tests that can be taken from any computer. So your kid can take the tests right at home.

This is a great tool to promote individual learning. Kids and parents can evaluate immediately how much was understood, as the computer test gives a score based on questions based on the book. The feedback is important to give kids an incentive to pay attention and try to raise their scores.

Two quick links to this great resource:

• To take quizzes, log to http://hosted138.renlearn.com/280647/
• To view the progress, log to http://hosted138.renlearn.com/280647/homeconnect/login.aspx

To learn more contact your kid's teacher, literacy coach, or email Sylvia Wood (Librarian) at swood@csdf-cde.ca.gov

Deaf kids (and individuals in general) are entitled to get cheaper transportation tickets. A $24 "Red Ticket" for example can be bought for $9 - a 62.5% saving!

To be able to buy the discounted Red Ticket, one needs to get an RTC Discount Card. The card can be issued at a variety of locations.

Further explanations can be found in the Bart's site at http://www.bart.gov/guide/accessibility/RTC.aspx.

Our baking sale is going really great, thanks to all the hard work the community has been putting into it. We sold around 200 loaves so far! The funds are going to the APTC.

The recipe for the Zucchini Bread we've been baking was given us by Kathy and Gene Armstrong. The Armstrongs are a beautiful couple that have been taking care of at-risk babies for many years, giving them a loving home until a suitable placement is been found.

Our own Rolando Middlebrooks (now in the 7th grade at CSD) was the very first baby the Armstrongs took care of. He was born in Mexico with a cleft palate, and the Armstrongs brought him to America for treatment. They learned sign language when they realized Rolando was deaf, and took excellent care of him until he was adopted.

One of Rolando's favorite activities when he was living with them was to join them in the Zucchini Bread baking fun. He used to call Gene Pa-pa-pa (for Granpa), so the cake ended up being called "Pa-pa-pa Cake". The organic zucchini picked fresh from their garden was a perfect match for Kathy's recipe. The cakes always turned out great!

We honor the Armstrongs by continuing to bake this bread for our friends, and now to raise funds for CSD.

The delicious Mexican food made fresh at the stand was a huge success! We were able to collect over $1000 in sales and contributions!
The proceeds go to the Bengals to support the footbal and cheerleading teams.