I just got back from tutoring. First, the girl. Her brother reported that she brushed her teeth every morning but this morning. I asked her why, and she didn't want to say. But finally, when I said I wasn't going to be mad at her, but we needed to discuss why so we could solve the problem, she admitted she forgot. So I suggested she make a sign to hang somewhere to remind herself. I suggested she say, "Brush your teeth." I helped her spell the words, and she added her brother's name. I said the sign was for her, so she should have her name, but she refused, so I let it go. When her brother saw the sign, he thought it was unfair, since he had brushed his teeth all week. I said sympathetically that yes, I knew he did, but she wanted the sign that way and refused to put her name on it, so why not just let it go? I said the important thing is if it reminds her to do it, not whose name is on the sign. He reluctantly agreed.
But as his sister and I were reading a book she had, he was drawing on their white board behind us. He drew a picture of his sister with 3 eyes, one in the center of her forehead. When I noticed it, I asked him about it. He meant it as an insult, but I told him about Eastern religions (Buddhist?) that often depicted people with a 3rd eye right where he put it, and I wondered if he was familiar with that. He wasn't, but I thought it was an interesting coincidence that he put his sister's 3rd eye right there.
The girl read a small book about a dog that wanted a boy for Christmas. It was harder than the books she's been reading lately, and she struggled through it with lots of help. I had a surfeit of vocab words for her. I only gave her the usual 10.
Then it was the boy's turn. He chose to read a Calvin and Hobbes comic book. That comic uses lots of very sophisticated words and concepts, so we did a lot of discussing, and we didn't find as many words for his vocab list. We discussed things like what 3-D means: 3 dimensions, height, length, and depth. Then somehow, he got the idea to draw a figure with 2 heads, and he asked me if I ever saw someone with 2 heads. No, I said, but I did see a calf with 2 heads. It wasn't alive, but had been stuffed. A short description of taxidermy. Then I mentioned Siamese twins. So we discussed twins, then that sometimes there are birth defects. I promised to print out something about Siamese twins for him for next time.
Meanwhile, behind our backs on the white board, the girl drew a picture of her brother with eyes all over him. Interesting art. her brother erased it.
We ended with a Mad Libs as usual.
