Tutoring went well today. Lots of laughter from the kids.
First, the girl. I had printed out some simple stories that she read aloud, me supplying words she didn't know (which she now has to study), and then there were some questions to answer. She got them right till they got a little harder, and then she had to refer back to the story to find the answers, sometimes with my prompting. She got them all right, though, with my suggestion she look harder when she had a wrong answer. I didn't give her the answers, just suggested she think more about wrong answers, and then she corrected herself. She really likes these reading comprehension exercises! I'll have to download more. I had a bunch of them, but she flew
through one after the other.
Then she wanted a Mad Libs, which her brother joined us for.
And then it was his turn. He read a few pages of that story he had struggled
through back when we started, and he got to see how easy reading it was now, compared to then. I praised him for learning so much and advancing as he's done. He had a faint smile, but is too modest or something to get really excited about praise. Both kids are like this, but his sister less so.
Then he wanted to do a word search, and he chose one that had words about mummies. We had read something about mummies a while ago, and I guess I printed out this word search for that lesson and then never used it. I have lots and lots of word searches, so there's no need to print more for a long, long time.
Sometime soon, I want to take a game of Scrabble to them. We can play and I can help both of them with spelling. At first, at least, I won't keep score. The girl will be at a big disadvantage for Scrabble, since her vocabulary is so much more limited. That could be a big hit or a total flop.
Oh, yes. The boy wrote a few sentences about the movie they watched. There was only one sentence he had to reword, since it didn't make any
sense. I had him do that.
The girl hadn't written anything, and I told her she has to write something for my next visit on Saturday. Then the boy asked if that meant they couldn't watch another movie before she did, and I said they could go ahead and watch the next movie on their list, which will be ET. I bet the boy will like that one especially.
Then it was time to go. When I left their house to get in my car, the promised ice pellets were coming down hard, but as I drove down the hill into the center of Ithaca, it turned to rain and nearly stopped -- just sprinkles. On the way home, the rain got a little harder at times and then nearly stopped, but it didn't seem to be the ice pellets that pelted me when I got into my car.
When I got home, the driveway was slick and icy. I didn't check the mail, because that little hill up to the mailbox would have meant a fall for sure.
I also got some blending stumps and tortillons by Daler Rowney. And I got some Pentel Hi Polymer erasers... did i ever mention I have a thing for pencils and erasers?
