I guess it's time for the latest tutoring report.
I started with the boy. He read about climate change, and he did extremely well. I had a worksheet I had made up with his words from last time, and he did that, though he hadn't studied his words, so he needed some help. Then I gave him a word search using those words, but he didn't want to do it. I didn't insist. He also didn't want to find things in the alphabet book -- the letter F.
So his sister came in, and she and I found lots of F words. I also scolded her as severely as I had ever done. We were looking at the F picture and had found nearly all we were going to, so she tried to draw something in. I freaked and said, "No! Don't you EVER draw in my book!" She looked really scared. Still, it's an important lesson for her to learn, not to deface others' property. I was taught not to write in books when I was little, and that lesson stuck so firmly that when I was in the publishing business and had to tear pages out and write in books, it felt really uncomfortable at first.
We sang and then she read "Frosty the Snowman." She did well, too, though there were words she'll have to learn. And she forgot her purple folder with the book she has to read for school, which I'm supposed to do with her. She left it at the restaurant. When I got home, I phoned and got her dad and told him that she forgot it, and maybe he could take it home so her brother could help her with it tomorrow. She is very forgetful. Is that normal for a 7-year-old? Probably. When my daughter was that age, I probably hovered and reminded her. Maybe that's why I don't remember it being such a problem.
Finally, the girl did her word search with her latest vocab words, and I helped a little, which gave me a chance to say the words and she had to find that word in the list and also in hidden in the puzzle.
The girl is starting to get a bit of attitude, more like her brother used to be, and he's settling down and working more. I guess these are just normal ups and downs, though I try to analyze it and see what's causing resistance. I've been praising the boy a lot lately, and the girl is in trouble for not reading those books the school sends home, so I think their attitude may have something to do with approval. I wonder why she resists those books. They are easier than the stuff I ask her to read. She has breezed
through every one. Of course, she isn't really into reading what I provide, either, though she liked Frosty well enough. Maybe I need to give her songs to sing and then read. I came up with the Frosty idea when, the lesson before, one of the words she didn't know was "frosty." OK, I'm off to put on my thinking cap and come up with a song for next time.