Sandy, I enjoy reading about your tutoring sessions. Matter of fact, sometimes I wish you had been my teacher in school. I had 2 "teachers" in school (math) that; 1 should never had been teaching in the first place as she never got her teaching degree in the first place and 2 shouldn't have ever taught or been a coach because she did not have any leadership qualities. I failed both years of math one in 7th grade and the other in 11th. Actually all their students failed. Thankfully I had very good teachers tutoring me the next year(s) so I could graduate on time. (And get this I actually made great grades in all my other classes!) I wonder why we even were forced to take algebra. I have never even used it.
Celtic, I'm glad you think so highly of my teaching abilities. I certainly try hard to make things interesting.
I don't have a teaching degree, either. Maybe you can learn a few techniques in college, but mainly, teaching takes imagination and empathy, and I don't think you can teach that. I've always enjoyed teaching, and I think I'm good at it. Most of my experience is teaching people to ride a horse. But I'm good at English, so I figure if I know something, and the kids don't, I can find a way to teach it to them.
A lot of what I wind up teaching is about the world around them. For instance, I was surprised that the boy, who just turned 9 last month, didn't know anything about murder. He didn't know that sometimes people kill other people. This came up in our discussion of what a judge is, court trials, and various crimes that when people are caught, then they would have a trial. I mentioned murder and stealing, and he said, "What's murder?" I thought he just didn't know the English word, but no, he didn't even know it could happen. Then we discussed capital punishment, ways people are executed for serious crimes like murder. We had already discussed hanging when he read that people were hung for harboring runaway slaves. So I mentioned that. He asked, "Do they still hang people?" I said it's still on the books in a couple of states, but I don't think they hang people much anymore. So he asked how they executed people now, and I briefly explained electrocution and lethal injection. He shuddered. I sure hope I didn't give him a reason for nightmares. Should I have mentioned these ugly facts? I think so. It's important for him to begin learning what goes on in the world.
We have also mentioned God. I taught them the story of Noah's Ark, since it gets mentioned a lot, and I thought they should know what it's about. I am not going to indoctrinate them about Christianity, but they should know about it. So we discussed whether there's a God, and what God might be like. I said some people believe, and some don't, and it's up to each person to make up his/her own mind. The boy decided God was a story, and the girl said she believed in God. I told them that their opinions could change as they got older.
We also discussed things like whether there are beings on other planets. I said that with the millions of stars out there, each one a sun, some of which have planets, there's a likelihood that other creatures exist on some of them. Why would we be the only ones? But those creatures might be very different from us, and we can't be sure they're there.
At one point, when we were discussing reality vs. myth, probably when we learned about leprechauns, I said, "Seeing is believing." The boy pointed out that none of us have ever seen the Great Wall of China, so maybe it doesn't exist. Good point. But I said I believed it did, because I've seen so many photographs and heard of people who have seen it.
Is this learning English? No. But it causes the kids to think, and discussions are in English, so it is practice speaking in English. I'm careful to not tell them how to think, only to bring up ideas to think about.
The only thing I really have said emphatically is that lying, cheating, and stealing is bad. I think it's universally accepted that honesty is the best policy to the point where I can just state that as fact.
Soon, we'll get back to more innocent subjects, like what a dugong is. Oh yes. I have a thing on climate change for the boy to read, too. He knew nothing of that, and it's another thing that's in the public consciousness to the point where I think he should learn about it. Of course, in our preliminary discussion, pollution came up, and I'll probably mention recycling in that lesson when we get to it. I haven't printed anything out about it yet.
My problem is not these philosophical discussions but how to get them to study their vocab words. Going over a list of new words that they don't know the meaning of and can't pronounce isn't much fun, but it's got to be done. I wish I could think up a way to make it fun.
BTW, both kids have trouble with the th sound. They've been pronouncing it like f. Last lesson, the boy actually got it! But he went right back to his old habit after trying. I said, "I know it's easier to say it the wrong way because you're used to it, and the new, right way seems funny, but you have to keep trying till it gets familiar." I'm thinking of having a list of words with the th sound and getting the kids to read them off, being careful to pronounce the sound correctly. I'm not sure how much fun that'll be, but I'll try it and see if they'll be interested. I also thought of tongue twisters to improve their diction, but I'm not sure if even the boy is ready for that yet.
If any of you have ideas on how to make the vocab lists more fun, I'm all ears.
THANKS 
You've been a good friend and I am proud to know you. Have a great day if you can. 
