A World of Learning

 When I'm working with a really young child who is just starting to learn to write, I write the letters out in dashes for the child to trace as they say the letter. After they have done this after two or three sessions, I have them write the letter freehand. Often, on their first couple of tries, it's a mess. They usually want help writing the letters, so I tell them to hold their pencil like they're going to write with it, then I hold their hand in mine and gently guide them while I describe the movements I'm making. It is sort of like the child is writing letters halfway between following the dashes and writing completely on their own. It gives them a boost of confidence when they see what they've written. "Look what I wrote!"

 I'm always trying to think of fun ways for my students to learn what I'm teaching them, whether it's reading and writing or math. One of the games I came up with is the "bean bag toss." It works great for spelling and math times tables. If I'm working with a beginning reader, I'll play together with them and we'll spell a word like "you." They'll start off with the bean bag and say the first letter, y, and throw me the bean bag. then I'll say the next letter, o, and throw it back to them. Then they finish off the word with the u. This works with one of my older students who is learning words like "psyche." We play it the same way, back and forth.  For math, the bean bag is used to count by a number, like counting by 3s or by 6s. The student and I take turns saying the numbers following each other (3,6,9,etc) until we've gotten really high. I did this with a 10-year-old recently and we were counting by 7s, and we made it...

 When working with younger children, for example the two six-year-olds that I tutor, I like to give them a "brain break." After working on their sight words and phonics, they read a "Bob Book." Then I use specially lined paper for younger writers with a blank space at the top for them to draw a picture. I encourage them to draw a picture that relates to the story they just read. After they draw the picture, I have them write a sentence about their picture. I like to give them about five minutes. I give them a one-minute warning. Then I say "time's up, you can finish your picture later." But sometimes the child will say "just one more thing" and that turns into "another thing." I show a little patience, but there has to be a stopping point to move on to the learning game/activity. This is when I simply move the paper out of reach and remind them they can finish it later, or tell them that it's time to put away the colored pencils...