tutoring 😊
I just had my first tutoring session with this adorable 7 year old. She has some developmental struggles (primarily motor skills and learning skills) and she also has anxiety (but same bro, same). She is also absolutely adorable and so, so sweet.
We're working on "math facts"... which is primarily memorization or simple addition and subtraction. She can count very well, and when she counts she can add and subtract just fine, but she doesn't really have any of it memorized/engrained.
I showed her some patterns like 5+2=7 is the same as 2+5=7 and 7-5=2 means that 7-2=5, and she was able to guess pretty quickly what the answers were once she knew the patterns. We also played a game that was essentially bingo with numbers, where you roll two die and add the numbers together, then you color in a spot on the board representing the sum. And we also played a game of catch with a little ball that I'd written numbers all over—where ever your hands land you have to add or subtract the two numbers underneath.
We also talked a little bit. She seemed to be getting frustrated, and I attempted to reassure her she was doing a good job. She asked me if she was going to have to do first grade again, and I told her I wasn't sure but I didn't think so. I followed it up with I really have no idea and that I'm not the one that decides, but I talked to her about the "what if she did" and tried to play through that scenerio a bit just so that she was a little less worried about that possibility (if she did repeat it would mean extra support for her, the kids in the grade below probably wouldn't even know, lots of kids repeat earlier grades... and I told her about my best friend and how shes repeated two grades and later skipped grades).
She was very sweet. When it was time for me to go, she said bye to her grandmother and claimed she was going with me instead. 😂 Looking forward to seeing her again Thursday.
