A World of Learning

 Hey! It's been a while! Happy 2026! I hope the year is starting off well for you! Things are good here, other than having covid once and a cold today!  Anyway, I found a new game for the kids I tutor to play! I noticed a checkerboard pattern on the back of the cereal box, of the cereal I was eating one morning. I thought "hmmm. . . I think I could turn that into a good game for tutoring." So I drew in some lines and made a path for our players to follow, how far we go each team determined by saying the word correctly, then rolling the die. Whoever gets to Finish first wins! It's quite a success, as I can use it for being able to recognize words, spell words (without seeing them), identifying letters of the alphabet, or correctly completing math equations. It's very versatile. Game ideas can be found just about everywhere you look - you just need to think creatively!

 Merry Christmas, everyone! I love this time of year, and I enjoy getting gifts for the students that I tutor. It's so much fun surprising them, and I always do my best to choose something that will be perfect for each child.  This year, I purchased 5 gifts - two for Elsie and Elliot, one for Macie, and one for Ruby and her baby sister, Dayla. I didn't want the little one to be left out.  For Ruby and Dayla, I chose some stuffed animals with the big sparkly eyes. I think they liked them. They're so young, and they don't have a very long attention span, especially Dayla.         For Macie, it was easy to choose a gift. She always wears a Minecraft hat, and she had mentioned that her dad gives her "Kinder Eggs" and she really loves it. So I got her a Minecraft shirt and some Kinder Eggs. She was really happy.                                   And, for Elsie and...

 I found a book series by Kate DiCamillo about a pig named Mercy Watson and all the adventures she has! The second grade girl loves them so much that, even though I had the first three books in the series and was working my way up, she went to the library and got the rest of them!  Now I have a new second grade girl, so I'm going to try the books with her. Hopefully she'll like them just as much!

 Tutoring a three-year-old, I try to play as many alphabet learning games as I can in a session, keeping her attention for the one-hour session. One of the games we play to help her learn her letters is a board game with dice. It involves rolling one die on your turn, moving forward the number of spaces on your die, and then picking a piece of construction paper with a letter on it. Then you need to be able to say what letter it is. If you get it right, you either get to move forward one space or two, depending on what the space you're on says. The first one to get to finish wins. But the game goes by so fast, I'm thinking of creating another game board that has more spaces on it so it will last longer. Also, the little girl is getting so good at the letters I have written on the pieces of paper, I'm going to have to replace them with letters that are a little more of a challenge. 

 One of the kids I work with is on the Special Olympics bowling team. Recently, they had a tournament, in which players could win either gold, silver, or bronze medals (or participation medals). Well, this boy, a freshman in high school, usually gets gutterballs when I take to regular bowling games on Tuesday afternoons. Sometimes, though, he'll knock down a few pins, then a few more on his second throw. (Throw?) I've seen him get a few strikes.  Well, when they had the tournament, his family went with him to watch him play. When I next saw him, he showed me that he was one of the participants who earned a gold medal because he got three strikes! I wish I could have seen that!  He's been so proud of his medal, which allows him to go to the next tournament, so he's been wearing it to school all week. He has been improving in his bowling skills, and I hope he does well tomorrow when I'll be taking him to his weekly bowling game! 

  I was able to sub at an elementary school again this week! It's always confusing, at this school in particular, finding my way around the different hallways and locating classrooms! Just when I start getting the hang of it, the school day is over. Figures. Well, I'll most likely sub at that school again, so hopefully I'll remember some of what I learned this week.  But all of that is beside the point. Something that I saw at this elementary school really caught my attention. It's a book tree! Kind of like those little libraries that people put up, but with much more imagination! Something that should catch kids' attention and make them want to take a book home. I sure would enjoy looking at the choice of what there was to read. But I'm always looking for something new to read.  This past summer, I participated in the Adult Summer Reading program at the local library. I received a free book for signing up! I was able to choose one from a specific shelf. Also, t...