My first tutoring experience was when I was in grade seven, I tutored a family friend’s grade three daughter. This young girl had leg braces and crutches and so her teachers had often overlooked certain things. When I inquired how she had gotten to grade three, she said by copying. Starting at the very beginning, I soon discovered that she couldn’t even count to 100. After looking for the pattern in her mistakes, I discovered that she ran into trouble ever time there was a 7, so 67, 77, 87, 97 would stop her progress. Once she was shown the pattern that 7 follows 6, then she could understand that 66 leads to 67 and 67 would be followed by 68. By recognizing the pattern, she was able to count.

This girl also had difficulties writing stories. However, she could tell you some of the most fantastic tales. So one day when she had to write a story for class, I had her repeat one of her tales. As she recounted the story, I wrote it down, using her words. I read it back to her and told her that she could recopy it and hand it in since it was her story. Imagine her excitement when she realized that she could not only do the English assignment but her fantastic tales could become interesting stories.

My own son was unable to sequence numbers thus making counting to 30 very difficult. The way I tackled this problem was by using a wooden number puzzle my sister had given him. Every night before he fell asleep, we would take out that puzzle and count. To count into the teens, I added a number '1' from a fridge magnetic set. It seemed to take forever to get to twenty, as all the numbers from one to thirteen are unrelated and make no sense. Numbers fourteen to nineteen could be related to four thru nine. Twenty had to be mastered but then twenty-one to twenty-nine had a system to them. Except for learning the names of thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty and ninety, the rest made perfect sense to my kindergarten son. So although it took us weeks, maybe even months, to get him to count to thirty, it only took him one night to count to 100 and beyond.

I tried to turn learning into a fun time spend with my son. (Though admittedly this isn't always possible -- one of my female grade seven tutoring students used to say "Your idea of fun or mine?") Try to find something your child enjoys (like my son and puzzles) and use it as a tool for learning. Account holders can contact me if they are looking for additional help in this area.