There was once a time when I was terrified of the idea of teaching young children. What if I do it wrong? What if I destroy the intellectual development of the child sitting in front of me? Yet after I decided to just give it a try for a few months, I find that I quite enjoy it. I believe that there are two main reasons for that: kids don't judge and they are versatile. If you make a mistake, you can apologize, fix the problem and move along. It will not destroy your relationship with them.
Yet after handling children with different temperaments and performance level, I began to realize that the best way to teach them is to let them show you how to teach them. Every child is unique and gifted in a special way. Some learn intellectually, some physically and quite a few emotionally. You would be amazed at the array of skills I have seen amongst learning children. I find that if I insist that they learn only a certain way, it will only work if their skill complements the technique. For example, I love text. I can sit down, read a book and visualize information flow easily. However some of my students cannot visualize anything, period. They have to move around or touch an object in order to understand a mental concept. Let me give you an example; I have a ten-year-old child who could not understand how to calculate the value of Q from the graph below.
The distance between Q and the other two values are exactly the same. So he should calculate out the answer in the following steps.
815 − 175 = 640
640 ÷ 2 = 320
Hence Q is 175 + 320 = 495
However for him to solve this problem, he must understand the concept of distance. Apparently the line alone was not enough. I used miniature toys at first to show him that Dog-Q is exactly the same distance between Cow-175 and Horse-815. It didn't work. So next I made him take eight steps and asked him what was half of that. He still couldn't answer me. Finally I asked him to sit down and figure out how to find the answer himself. He asked me a few questions that went something like this:
| Student | Tutor | |
| - | Is there another number? | No. |
| - | Is Q 175 +=+ 640? | No. |
| - | Is Q 815 +=+ 640? | No. |
| - | What should I do to find Q? | Divide 640 by 2 first. |
| - | 640 divided by 2 is 320. | Good. Why must you divide it by 2? |
| - | Because Q is in the middle. | Excellent you figured it out yourself. Now, is Q a larger value than 175? |
| - | Yes. | What should you do next? |
| - | Add 320 to 175? | Very good. So what is Q? |
| - | 495 |
It took me over twenty minutes to drum the concept into him. But once he got it, he was on a roll. Even then, I still had to be careful and made sure to keep the experience positive because he wanted to do well badly. On top of all that, I also realize that children learn better if they like you. Amazingly enough, they excel if you expect them to do better than their current level. But that only works if they feel that you have their best interest at heart. For that reason, I always try to end a lesson with positive feedback, else I will give them specific instructions on how to improve their performance.
Children are too young to understand that being distracted (talking with friends during class) affects their learning. Once you can prove to them that they do better (sitting them away from their best friend for one session) they actually become motivated to focus and concentrate for future lessons because they can see the direct relation of a more focused behaviour to their improved grades. This tactic doesn't work well with teenagers though because they will sulk. For teenagers, I find that the best way is to tell them how a specific lesson can help them improve their skill to understand complex materials better. They love stuff that improve their bragging rights.
Is there a side-effect to tutoring? Oh definitely, and it is positive. Most times when we talk to kids we use 'do this' or 'don't do this' phrases. But when you are involved in the actual process of knowing what kids learn in school, you now have a common subject to talk about. For example, when I have kids reading passages on the Grimm Brothers, I ask them to name me three of their favourite fairy tales. Then I will tell them which titles were written by the two brothers. If children are given 'special' information that affects them directly, then they tend to remember the passage better because it perks their interest.
I hope that this article makes you want to try to be involved in your children's schoolwork. If for nothing else, it will certainly give you more things to talk about.
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