Hi, all. I't's been a while since I checked in. ... but it's been longer for Rave. Where is she?
So I tutored today. My schedule has changed since school started, and now it's late afternoon to evening, rather than late morning to afternoon. I confess I liked summer hours better.
Today, I met my friend Karen for lunch at a Turkish restaurant in Ithaca. But first, I bought potting soil at Agway and then drove up the hill to BJ's for cheap gas. So I got all that out of the way early, before tutoring.
At lunch, Karen asked me about living in Turkey for 6 months, and I told her some things I had seen that were different than I was used to. She said she enjoyed hearing about my experiences. It sure was an unforgettable adventure!
I have begun tutoring the 4th child, a little girl who is the same age as the girl I've been tutoring, but who is way behind her. I think there are so many issues to address that I hardly know where to begin. She has a very sketchy idea of how to sound out words. I know that phonics were abandoned at one point in education, but I believe they really do help in addition to lots of sight words. We're going to have to address that soon. As for now, we are dealing with sight words, and I give her hints about sounding out words, but I haven't focused on it yet with worksheets, other than a few simple ones that ask her to identify the beginning letter to a picture, like a picture of a mushroom, and she has to choose M.
But last week, she mentioned tongue twisters, so I brought some to her to read and try to say. I had tried this with the other 2 that I've been tutoring for a while, and that went over like a lead balloon. They are so focused on getting it right that I think they couldn't tolerate stumbling over words, which is what tongue twisters are all about. But the new girl and I tried some and had good laughs over our failures, when our tongue tangled around them. I told her how when I was her age, I studied Peter Piper till I got it right, and she wanted to try it, but she still hadn't mastered it at this next lesson, so we moved on.
I'm getting all the kids to write things more, and they hate it, because that's what they are poorest at. I know concocting something is more challenging than dealing with something ready-made, but that's part of creativity. I'm wondering how I can be more supportive and positive and still point out what they did wrong so they don't worry so much about the mistakes. The biggest hurdle is still subject/verb agreement: he says, not he say -- that kind of thing.
Meanwhile, the original girl is still reading the Jungle Books. We are wading through chapter 3, where Mowgli is abducted by the Bandar-Log, the monkeys. She is really motivated to read this story, though it's very difficult for her. There are thee and thou and ye and people don't speak that way today, plus many words she hasn't come across. I keep asking her if she's tired and he wants to stop for the day, but even if she's a bit cross-eyed, she wants to read on to see what happens till I say she really is getting too burnt out reading. She's such a trooper when she's inspired, but half her homework, consisting of boring reading comprehension and grammar, doesn't get done. Reminds me of myself.
I ordered the first Harry Potter book from Amazon so the older boy could read it at our leisure. He started it today. He tried to read it on his own last year but gave it up, but with my help, I think he will get through it. Whether he'll appreciate it or just do it because everyone is, we'll see.
I love tutoring. It's so amazing that after the freelance editorial work dried up, this just fell into my lap! I love it how that has happened so often in my life, as if there's a bigger plan for me, and if I just wait for things, they come to me as they should. Is that a charmed life, or what?
), so I end up wearing them eventually.
