The tutoring report.
The boy started off. I went over his words from last time. He had not written out definitions of the ones he was assigned as homework. I'm beginning to think that homework is something I just shouldn't expect. But I had made a fill-in-the-blanks from those words, and he couldn't do it unless he knew what the words meant, so we went over them. He learned to pronounce them and what they meant, though he kept forgetting. I kept reminding. It's a way to learn the words. That's the important thing. Needing to know them to complete something seems to provide motivation than just telling him about them. So this evening, I made up another fill-in-the-blanks from the same words, but the sentences are a lot more complex. I expect there will be some words in the sentences that he won't know on Wednesday, and those will become next week's words.
When he finished that, I could see that he had worked hard and was ready to quit, so we didn't do any additional reading. He was intimidated by the fact that the worksheet was 3 pages long, though I pointed out that I had made the type large and put space between the lines so it was easier to read and he had room to write. I said I could have made it smaller, and then it might have only been a page. He accepted that.
Then his sister joined us for the letter G in the alphabet book. They tired of it quickly, so I worked with the girl, and the boy went upstairs.
She had a fill-in-the-blanks worksheet, too. She hadn't studied the words, either, though she seemed to remember hers better than her brother. The list was shorter, and the words were easier, which may be why. When she finished that, we read the 2 books that had been sent home from school in her purple folder, which was at the house this time. She whizzed through the books, which I expected she would. When she acted like she didn't want to read them, I said, "Come on. You'll breeze through them. They are always easy for you. It won't take long." I don't understand why she resists these easy books so much. In the 2 books, there was only one word she didn't know: clever. Of course, there were some more in the worksheet I had made up. Those will be for next time.
Then she did a word search. This was made up of words from previous lessons, and she knew most of them. She was muttering them to herself as she was looking for them. Good! That's the idea! And circling them is learning how to spell them, though just doing it once isn't going to teach her the spelling. Still, it's going to make their structure and spelling more familiar.
Then it was time to go. In fact, I had stayed an extra half hour.
One thing I was encouraged by was that when the girl was doing her worksheet, and I suggested that if she didn't know the answer, she should skip the sentence and move on to the next, then go back to the ones that gave her more trouble, she didn't resist. I remember when the boy resisted. Now he will do it if I remind him. The girl has never wanted to do this till today. It's an important step. I'm not sure quite why, though I
sense it. If they take tests in school, they should skip what they don't know and move on so they don't get hung up on question #2 and spend their whole time contemplating it. Do what you know, then go back to figure out the hard ones. Both kids had trouble with this concept. The boy now does it easily when I suggest it, but only today did the girl relent and try the strategy. I think this is some sort of thinking outside the box, that not everything has to be linear. And it'll certainly serve them well in school when they take tests. I don't know where I learned this or when. Maybe I had to figure it out myself. Maybe at some distant point, a teacher suggested it. But it's the only sensible way to take a test.
I went to Moe's for dinner. This is a neat fast-food restaurant with a Mexican bent. On Mondays, they have burritos at half price, so I can eat for under $10. I always order the Homewrecker. If you're curious about Moe's, see
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I figured I should mow today since I have my first PT appt tomorrow.
