Picking a Tutor – My family’s experience (part 2/4)
Our first session with our tutor Amanda was a success. Ari was taken with her right away. He loves baseball, and Amanda had come armed with this knowledge. She had actually played competitive baseball in high school and they connected right away. She was cheerful, happy and laughed at all his jokes. I could tell his confidence was building right away. Then, he sat down at the kitchen table with her and got to work. She had him draw a picture of himself and work on a few sentences for an “all about me” exercise. She also looked at his school homework and helped him prepare for his first spelling test the next day. (He got 100 percent!) I knew she was assessing his ability to read and write, but Ari wasn’t aware. He seemed happy to have someone other than me to read and write with him. Before the session was over, she gave him some homework for Ari to complete by the next week.
Josh was a bit of a challenge. Exhausted from a new routine at school, he was having a hard time sitting still and cooperating. Amanda was patient and calm and managed to get him to focus for as long as he was able. She never gave up or let on that my kid was being challenging. She pressed on through until the very end.
The next day, I was surprised to receive her report on both boys. She provided very in-depth assessments about their strengths and the areas in which she would like to help them excel. She mapped out a learning strategy for the following weeks and I was really impressed with her individualized plan of attack.
I also loved how she had customized the plan for each of them. After seeing Josh become consistently tired after school, I decided to hold off on his lessons for now so that Amanda could focus on Ari. Ari’s energy and enthusiasm will no doubt inspire Josh in the coming weeks. In the meantime, next week, Amanda and Ari will work on age-appropriate words associated with baseball and make their own baseball cards. This was the best money I’ve ever spent.
– Erin (Toronto mom)