Tutoring went well today.
In the car, the girl was bothering her brother by touching him with a toy frog. He yelled rudely at her, and it gave me a chance to reinforce being polite. And I told her not to bother her brother, too. I think I see the dynamics. She annoys him in subtle ways, he reacts, and then he looks like the bad guy. Still, I told him he should have calmly asked her to please not tap him with the frog. And she should have stopped then.
Later, I mentioned it again, including both kids in the lecture, not just the boy. I said I wanted them to be well-behaved, so people would see them and say, "What wonderful children they are," not " Wow! They are little monsters. I'm glad they aren't mine. They need a good spanking." I think the boy got the message. I could see him trying on his new, polite self.
I also asked both kids if they preferred having lessons separately or together. The girl said she wanted them together, and the boy said he didn't, and his sister could go first, so I started with her. At some point when we were nearly finished, he walked in, and I gave him stuff to do.
First, he read about Manneken Pis. He seemed interested and I told him that the stuff I was going to have him read was adult stuff, straight from Wikipedia, not reworded so it was simpler for kids. I thought he could do it, though some words might be hard. And he did! Yes, he didn't know some words, but that's always the case. And he was attentive when I explained. So that idea worked! Now, what do I think up that's outrageous enough to hold his attention on Saturday? Any suggestions?
The girl did a reading comprehension sheet. I have lots of them of varying difficulty, and she chose one that wasn't too hard. I'm glad she's learning to judge her skill level and choose something appropriate. In the past, she would choose something too hard for her and then be daunted by it. I do give advice and guidance about this, but I also let them choose what they want to work on and learn on their own how to judge the difficulty rather than just be handed work that's appropriate. I think it's important to learn to evaluate stuff like that.
They really like the idea of personalized word searches with their own vocab words. In fact, the girl asked if I could make a word search for her with words she supplied. I said part of her homework would be to make a list of words, and then next time I'd write them down and make a word search for her with her own words. She got busy right away making her list.
The boy did a word search, too, one made for him. He kept saying it was impossible, and I said no, it might be difficult, but it wasn't impossible. He asked what the difference was, and I told him. All along, he was using "impossible," and I thought he was giving up, and here, he was just complaining that it was hard.
To end, we did a Mad Libs. I told them again that when these Mad Libs were finished, we'd have to make our own. The boy asked how we could do that, and I said we'd think up a story, then decide which words to take out, then decide what parts of speech they were. I would type it up at home, print it out, and then they could do it just like the ones that were made for us.
That's it. Now to put on my thinking cap and come up with something wild and interesting for the boy for next time.