Hi, all. Lizzie, I'm glad your party was successful, with lots of great food.
All you folks who want to give away overflowing produce, I wish you lived near me!
I tutored today, including the new little girl.
First, the girl I've been tutoring and her older brother. I read them the beginning of The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling. After I read the section, I asked the kids to write about it. Did they like it or not? Do they want to hear more of the story? The boy wrote that he didn't like it. I think he was unhappy that the story moved too slowly. The girl liked it and said she wanted to hear what happened next. So I said I'd read it to her but not her brother. More & more they are separating what they like and don't like. The girl said that the book is big, and it would take a long time to read it all if I just did it once a week. I read aloud to them once a week, and the other 2 days, I have them read aloud to me. She wanted to speed things along by reading it aloud, too, other days, but I think the words will be too hard for her. Still, we'll give it a try next time and I'll let her decide if she'd rather struggle to hear the story more quickly or if she would rather have me read it to her once a week.
I did some usual work with the littlest one. He's getting better at writing, but he still strays from the guidelines.
Saturday, I took all 3 of them and their grandmother to the Trumansburg Fair. Unfortunately, Grandma didn't want to pay for more than one ride. Yes, they were expensive, but it's not every day the kids attend a fair like that. IMHO, she was being cheap at the expense of the kids' happiness. This meant that we viewed a few free things, like a juggling/acrobatics show and the petting zoo, and then the parade, the main feature of which was that many of the floats and cars tossed out candy that the kids could gather. The older boy collected it for his younger siblings, but he wasn't really into the fun of gathering it as the vehicles go by or getting the candy. I had told the kids there would be a demolition derby, which they were looking forward to, but then the schedule had monster trucks and it cost $7 a person to get in to see it, and no one wanted to spend that much without knowing what it might be. So after the parade, the older boy and the grandmother wanted to go home, even though the fireworks, which the girl wanted to see were a couple of hours away. So she was disappointed once again by her brother nixing staying till the fireworks. I felt really bad for her and said that, if her mom would allow it, I'd take just her to see some fireworks. So I found they would have fireworks at Cornell's Homecoming Weekend, but there's a rock show with laser light show before then, and I'm not sure she would go for that. How long would it last? Maybe 2 hours? And then, tonight, I read a local free paper that came in the mail, and there's a St. Anthony Festival in Seneca Falls, which is about an hour's drive away, but it'd do it if she wants. They mentioned "POP rides for $20" and I don't know what POP rides are. Are they all the rides on the midway? Just some? Would it be worth $20 for her? I emailed a group that seems to be sponsoring the fair and asked what POP rides are.
Then I drove down to the center of Ithaca for the new girl. She is very enthusiastic, and she speaks English very clearly, but she doesn't know a lot of words and grammar, so I think vocabulary and grammar will be the focus. These kids, not having been born speaking English, need more grammar than English-speaking kids because they don't learn it at their mother's knee.
I think it'll be fun teaching the new girl, who is about the age of the girl I've been tutoring.
Because the boy once again nixed what his little sister wanted, I'm beginning to think that he is doing it just to frustrate her. After all, he did once admit he hated her and couldn't wait till he was grown up and didn't have to live with her and put up with her anymore. I realize there is sibling rivalry, but this sounds extreme, and it worries me. I talked it over with Bill this weekend. He works for them and has known them for years. He said the kids' mom is beside herself over her mother-in-law, who I have seen, myself, is difficult. I don't want to burden her with the idea of her son's hostility to his sister. Bill thinks she doesn't know about it. I find that hard to believe, but their parents are so busy with their restaurant that maybe they are oblivious to their kids.
Anyway I want to give them a fun time when they go out with me, and Grandma made it boring, at least to the older boy. I also worry that he couldn't get into the spirit of the thing like the younger ones could. Is that 'cause he's 11 and getting more critical?
So then, I tutored the new girl, and after having trouble fining my way into their apartment, it went well. Her homework is to go on YouTube and learn the ABC song so she can more easily remember the sequence of the alphabet, which she knows fairly well already. We will work on verb tenses and vocabulary, I think.
