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I have been asked to help tutor a friend's daughter over the summer. She is 6 and has not done very well with her reading this year. She is in public school and in the first grade. I was wondering if RME would be a good fit for tutoring. I've not used it as of yet. My first dd is going through A Beka phonics but my 2nd dd will be using RME (we want a more gentle approach to phonics) and is chomping at the bit to begin reading so I thought that I'd teach them both at the same time this summer.

I am not sure if RME is good for summer tutoring or not. Does anyone have any imput? If not this program then any suggestions? I am also a little concerned with confusing that poor child. Should I find out from the school what method they use for teaching reading so that when she goes back next year (they are holding her back in 1st again) she isn't confused about any different methods we used during the summer?

I honestly think that repeating 1st is a great thing for her because age wise she is a very young first grader this year. She won't be 7 until Aug. 11 and really is just so care free and doesn't care about learning to read right now. She just wants to have fun!!! I think next year she might be a bit more mature and able to handle the material better. However I have seen the concern in her mother's face and want to do my best with this little one over the summer without turning her from a love of reading all together!!

I actually am very nervous about tutoring and even posed the question to my husband if I could actually do it!! I just feel kind of lost! He looked at me like I was crazy because in the background sat our 7 year old...reading a library book...our homeschooled 7 year old!! But honestly tutoring someone else's child makes me very nervous and causes me to doubt my ability to help her. So any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

Krissy - I tutored quite a bit in the past, and I think Reading Made Easy would work well for this. It is an excellent program, and you could just start at the beginning and get as far as you can with her. The summer is obviously not the time frame that is usually spent on teaching phonics, so she wouldn't finish RME before she went back to ps. Any tutoring she received would be beneficial though. Otherwise, you could do The Reading Lesson with her, which is only 20 lessons long for her for the summer - perhaps her parents would purchase it - and that would be shorter to finish in a summer. I am 100% confident you can tutor and do very well with that, but one word of caution - I'd weigh if you really want to be in a tutoring situation as you also teach your child to read for the first time. I'm not sure about combining them - due to comparison as well as other things. I know when I tutored dc, I was quite short with my own dc, and actually became more focused on other people's dc because I knew they were paying me for a service. It may be nicer to just tutor her separately, but you will know what will go best! It could very well just be me that struggled with sharing my time with my dc fairly.

In Christ,
Julie

my3sons wrote:Otherwise, you could do The Reading Lesson with her, which is only 20 lessons long for her for the summer - perhaps her parents would purchase it - and that would be shorter to finish in a summer.

Is it already set up that way? 20 lessons for a quick tutoring etc. is it similar to RME or anything else? would it take some getting use to on my part since i've never even looked at it? I knew that we wouldn't get too far with her but i was willing to give it a try.

my3sons wrote:I am 100% confident you can tutor and do very well with that, but one word of caution - I'd weigh if you really want to be in a tutoring situation as you also teach your child to read for the first time. I'm not sure about combining them - due to comparison as well as other things. I know when I tutored dc, I was quite short with my own dc, and actually became more focused on other people's dc because I knew they were paying me for a service. It may be nicer to just tutor her separately, but you will know what will go best! It could very well just be me that struggled with sharing my time with my dc fairly.

ya know i kinda wondered how it would go and you sound like i think i would react. it's just that my dd is DYING to read!! i'm not sure if she would be upset if she found out that i was working with someone else and not her...although i guess we could work on her lessons here at home...i know they are not time eaters so it wouldn't be too hard...i need to pray and think more!! i'm know for biting off more than i can chew!

Krissy,
Remember the key to teaching a little one to read is to love books. Reading aloud engages their attention and the story can draw them into wanting to learn more. When I have tutored in the past, (and had to teach them together) I have done my childrens lessons first,(allowing them to watch quietly not be a distraction...Having to colour etc.)
read aloud an engaging interesting story my child and I had picked before hand, and then spend the required time on the lesson with the student I was hired to teach. If it is interesting the goal for the child will be to make it fun if you encourage them to make it so. Maybe learning letters so they can mail them to Grandma or a surprise for Mommy and Daddy. Some children learn so young and some just aren't ready until 7 or 8 years old. They are all precious gifts and packages, sometimes they just open up at different times.
Will pray for you for wisdom and peace.
Joyanna

Joyanna,

Thank you for your words of wisdom! I do appreciate your prayers...I know that I will need them. It is my sole desire to instill in this child-and all of mine-a love of reading. I just want to make sure that I go about this the right way and with the right materials!! I guess I'm so nervous because this is the first child that I have had to tutor and I know that her mom is quite concerned about her reading and really wants to see some improvment this summer.

Again, I covet your prayers!!

The Reading Lesson also has a CD-Rom that goes with it. If you use it, you are suppose to do it first before going over the book. Maybe you could have your daughter do the cd-rom lessons while you work one on one with the girl you are tutoring with the book. You could then go over the book part with your daughter when the tutoring session was over, and the Mom could also have the daughter practice some at home on the computer and see exactly what she is learning. Just a thought.
http://www.readinglesson.com/index.htm Their web site has free downloads and you can look at the first 2 lessons. If you click on goodies, you can look at all of it.
http://www.mountcastleshop.com/The_Read ... _p/100.htm
Val

Personally, if it were me, I'd probably try to encourage the mom to work with her own child. You could in a sense, "tutor her in tutoring her own child". Could she be persuaded to use RME with your help for the first week or two until she gets the hang of it? Perhaps encouraging her to do this and also simply reading her child, then at the right time, her child will blossom. This could take some of the pressure off you regarding her hopes and possible expectations.

Patience wrote:Personally, if it were me, I'd probably try to encourage the mom to work with her own child. You could in a sense, "tutor her in tutoring her own child". Could she be persuaded to use RME with your help for the first week or two until she gets the hang of it? Perhaps encouraging her to do this and also simply reading her child, then at the right time, her child will blossom. This could take some of the pressure off you regarding her hopes and possible expectations.

I would love to do this but the mom speaks spanish and doesn't speak much english at all. she is beginning english as a second language classes this summer because it kills her to not be able to help her own kids but it will be a while before she can give much help. This is why my help is so important right now. The Lord has put us in her life for a reason and maybe it is this.

So this little girl is fluent in 2 languages. If so, which does she speak more at home? I know here if the predominant language is spanish at home then the child goes through ELL (english language learners) as well as the regular english speaking reading classes. If this isn't the case, then disregard this post. But if it is in fact that she is speaking and hearing spanish more than she is English at home, then I really think some videos and the cd that the reading lesson offers would be of great help. Videos like the Letter factory, Talking words factory, Code word caper, and storybook by Leap Frog would help her to see, hear, and say the sounds and words. The reading lesson also has a video sounds of letters as well as the giggle bunny storybooks.
I hope that you find what will work for you and your family as well as help this little girl and her family.
Val

Yes Val, she is fluent in both languages but at home Spanish is the predominat...well only language spoken for a couple of reasons, the first is that the parents little to no English and the second is that her mom doesn't want the kids to loose their Spanish. That being said I'm not sure if she is taking any ESL type courses at school. Do they offer those in 1st grade?

I am interested in what you said about the videos though. Do you think that The Reading Lesson would be a better fit for her than Reading Made Easy? Thank you for your input!!! Do you all speak two languages as well?

I think the videos would help if she is only hearing spanish at home. No, I'm not bilingual. I wish I was. I only have high school spanish . We do live in a state that has a lot of bilingual children (french or spanish speaking). When we register the kids for preschool or kindergarten, there are a lot of questions about language and if there is another language spoken in the home and the preschoolers that need ELL register at a different site to ensure that they are placed in ELL. From my understanding, the child needs to learn to read in their predominant language and then they will pick up reading in english easier. This makes sense b/c I can read spanish b/c I know how to sound out words and know the sounds of the spanish alphabet, but if at 6 yrs old I would have started off being taught reading in spanish I would have been so lost b/c I spoke and heard english all the time. Where a child that predominantly speaks and hears spanish would pick up the spanish alphabet and sounds and blends easier than the english ones. Then knowing how to read they can decipher english words.
I think a program that was all inclusive would be good. One that the child can see, hear, and interact with. The Leap Frog videos are fun and the child doesn't even realise they are learning. It may even help the parent with her english and sounds (her helping the child while watching the video).
Also, if her mother would like to help her in spanish learn to read, her is a link to a R&S spanish reading program.
http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/list/Es ... mer_grado/
My bet is she picks up on reading in spanish much faster and then she can move to reading english easier. I would bet a month of reading in spanish and then moving to reading in english and she will be decoding and sounding out and reading smoothly and fluently in both. Reading is about decoding and sounding out and fluency and smoothness. If she gains all that in spanish, then she can apply it in english.
I am copying and pasting this from a link In addition, the basic skills that serve as the base for reading, such as phonetic recognition, transfer from one language to another. If a student who is learning English has already acquired these skills in their first language, it is not necessary to learn them again in English. It is always a good idea to find out if the child knows these skills in their first language before beginning to teach them in English.
http://www.colorincolorado.org/educator ... rstreading
http://www.colorincolorado.org/educator ... television
This site has so many links and helps in both english and spanish versions.
I hope this helps you and the mother to help the little girl.
Val