A quick (I hope -- I have to get to sleep sometime tonight) update on tutoring the kids.
The youngest boy: I met with his teacher last week, and she shared some materials they are using in class. He seems to really love the idea of having me use them, too. He says, "My teacher taught me that!"
Next, his sister: I gave her a bunch of materials to start crocheting for Christmas and spent a few days of teaching her. She was very diligent about practicing and now has a good handle on it. She is making a scarf from the yarn I bought her, and she is so diligent that her mom has said she can't crochet on weekdays, when she needs to spend time on homework and music practice.
She still thought maybe she could look up stuff on the Internet about crocheting, if not actually doing it, but I advised her to ask her mom before she did. Did I create a monster? I think it's wonderful for a child to have a driving passion like that.
Her older brother is lagging, as usual, but he seems interested in "death and destruction -- and don't forget the chaos." That's from a punk rock song. Anyway, from our conversations, I sensed he would love to read about the Inquisition, with all its torture, etc. He read it today, and though there were lots of words (including Christian) that he didn't know, he was interested and struggled
through the reading. He has lots of new vocabulary words now! When I explained the word "notorious," he said he thought he remembered that word from when he read about Hitler. Maybe his interest in this stuff is sort of unhealthy, but it's part of history, and at least he wants to learn about it.
The new girl is hovering on 3rd grade reading. She's in 3rd grade now, so she's almost up to grade level. She is a hard worker, though she is easily distracted. She will go far if she can learn to focus.
Her older brother, who is 12, I just started tutoring. He seems to be up to speed on most things, but he needs to improve reading aloud. He also wrote something for me, and it was well organized and fairly literate, but I found things he needs to be more aware of. I only tutor him once a week, on Sat. But when I realized that it's MLK Day on Monday, I want him to read the "I Have a Dream" speech, so I guess that'll be after the fact. Today, we read some really technical stuff about sand being used for fuel.
It was a pretty busy day, even though Sat. starts a bit earlier than the other days. I noticed it was actually still light when I walked from my car to my last student, though it was still dark when I left. The days are getting longer! Yay!
