A World of Learning

 Wow! Now that it's summer, I have three new students! One girl, six years old, another girl, ten years old, and a boy, nine years old, in math. So now I have five students in reading, one in reading and math, and another in math. Now, math is not one of my strengths, but these kids are young enough that I can work with them. I'm filling up my schedule, not only with tutoring, but also with pet sitting. So much pet sitting! I need to remind myself that I am still a college student and need to keep up with my own assignments!  I do love my jobs, helping students learn one-on-one, and I love watching people's dogs and cats. It sort of fills the void of having to put down my dog three years ago. Anyway, I've got my first session with my new math student in an hour, so I've got to get going on plans! Have a happy day! 

 Hello again! I have been enjoying this spring, now summer, weather! Time to break out the capris! But that's totally off today's topic. Kids tend to get bored when all you're doing in teaching, teaching, teaching.... especially the younger kids. For the six-year-olds, I have them read a little Bob Book, then draw a picture inspired by the story. This gives them time to do something fun and express themselves. I give them usually about five minutes to draw, but I'm flexible to a degree. Then I go back to a little bit more instruction, then we play a learning game like "Say and Spell," a board game I created on a piece of cardboard from a calendar. The kids play against me and we roll the dice and see if we land on a "say" or "spell" space. If the child gets a "spell" card, they have to spell the word that's one of the ones they've been learning. If they get to the finish line first (which they usually do) they earn a piece

 Yes, I do often reward the kids I tutor with candy. They need to win a learning game like Say & Spell, word and definition matching, or the Popsicle stick challenge. (I will describe this in just a minute.) When the kids win, as they almost always do (I try to make it easy for them to win even though the content is still the same), I let them choose a piece of candy from the Zip-Lock bag I bring with me. The bravest of the kids like to go for the "Sour Warhead challenge." They can't just lick it, they have to put the whole thing in their mouths and keep it there until it gets sweet. Most of the time, they win. But one girl in particular licked it a couple times, then put it in her mouth and instantly spit it out again! Then she ran it under water in the sink until the sour part washed off and she could suck on the sweet part. The Warheads are almost as high in demand as the Zots, so I try to always make sure I have some. 

 Hey! It's been a few days since I posted anything, so I thought I'd share some easy math games for 2nd graders. I'm always trying to find something interesting for when I tutor my 2nd grader, because it's hard to keep his attention on math. He likes reading and writing much better. So I looked online and found a website that has a lot of math games! I was like, WOW! You can find them at https://www.math-salamanders.com/subtraction-games.html  Here are two of them and how to play them.

 There are so many books to choose from, for all ages, boys and girls, fiction and nonfiction. I personally have a few favorites that I like to read to younger students, like Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe and Squirrel's Fun Day by Lisa Moser. I have them follow along with the words as I read and I let them comment on the illustrations. In Fact, Squirrel's Fun Day is a pretty easy read even for younger kids, depending on what reading level they're at. You might try having them read it if you know them and their reading ability. A good book for, maybe, third graders to read is Fun is a Feeling by Chara M. Curtis. Another book that I like for young readers is called Get Out of Bed! by Robert Munsch. Then there's Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. Older kids who are ready for chapter books might enjoy the Little Bear books by Else Homelund Minarik. Then there's the Amber Brown series and A to Z Mysteries. There are so many to choose from! It

 Hello everyone! I had said in a post a LONG time ago that I would outline how I plan out my lessons, and I never did it. So, I'm doing it now.😊 For reading and writing lessons, I always give the kids words for their "Word List" on the previous week based on the words they had a hard time pronouncing from their reading time. So I start that week's session by having them say their words from last week (no more than five words a week).  Then I move on to something fun or interesting, like the question of the day.  "What's your favorite food?"  "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?" "What is your favorite animal?" "Do you have any pets? What are their names?" And so on. You can easily Google "Icebreaker questions for kids" to find some that you like. Most kids like the question of the day. Sometimes kids like to co-write a one-page story with me where we take turns writing sentences. In this act

 Sometimes I find that the younger students need a little bit of hands-on learning. Something tactile. Making letters out of Play-Doh can help them remember what the letters look like, even as they spell a word with those letters. I've done this so far with several of my clients over the years, and I believed it has helped them when it comes to remembering what the letters look like enough to write them on paper. Plus, they really like playing with Play-Doh.😊

 Addition comes easy to this particular boy that I tutor. Subtraction is getting easier, as I've been working with him on that. NOW we are on to basic multiplication. First, I had him multiply the numbers 1-10 by 10. He easily got 10, 20, 30 ... I think 10x10 was the hardest for him, the answer being 100.  So I tried times two. It took him a little longer, but if, for example, the problem was 4x2, I said "two groups of four." I think that might have helped. I wrote down the equations and he wrote down the answers. He did a great job!