Tutoring - did you forget about that?

If you've noticed, most of my blog has been about my adventures and not so much about the tutoring that I've been doing (or not doing).

But, I am happy to report that I have been working with Brice a lot more over the last couple of weeks. I am making use of the ESL lounge that GeoVisions gives us access to. It has lessons that range from beginner to advanced level and cover grammar, reading, writing, and listening.

Each day, Brice and I have been doing one or two of the lessons. We started with several listening exercises and are now doing some of the writing ones as well. With each lesson, we address any confusing vocabulary and grammatical structures and I hope that this structure will allow us to make some progress.  Since Marcy has been in town, Brice has stayed up late and gotten up early to make sure he has time to work with me each day. And, I even left him with a couple of brief writing assignments to do while Marcy and I were away.

I've also strongly suggested he adds 30 minutes a day of TV in English to his schedule because listening and understanding what is being said truly seems to be the most difficult for him.  And, unfortunately, the only way to get better is to practice, practice, practice!

I have also been volunteering at the local youth center - MJC (Maison de la Jeunesse et de la Culture).

I spent two afternoons there last week. On Tuesday I was at the CMA (a second smaller center that is right around the corner from the house). There were about 15 kids there and we just played. I taught the kids "Two truths and a Lie" and we also played "Fishy, Fishy, Cross My Ocean" in English so they could practice their color vocabulary. I got to practice my frisbee skills for about an hour and a half with a little 6 year-old named Alexis. All-in-all, I had a great afternoon!

Then, on Thursday, I went ice skating with kids from both the MJC and the CMA.  There were 46 kids and about 6 adults and honestly, it was a bit of a disaster. The place we went to skate was PACKED - and when I say packed, I mean a line of like 100 people looping around the parking lot. We didn't have reservations and to make a long story short, only about 30 of the kids got to skate (the littlest ones got to go sledding, but not skate, and they were VERY disappointed). We ended up having to skate in shifts of about 15 and then played in a field for the rest of the time. The kids were great (though it is the same as at home, there are always those few that really make it difficult for everyone else) and I enjoyed myself, but I just wish everything had been a bit more organized.

One thing I have noticed is how French snacking habits differ from American. In the States, we tried to serve healthy snacks that included fruits and vegetables whenever possible. Here, the kids bring their own snacks, but they are virtually ALL COOKIES. I saw one child with a banana and that's it. Otherwise it is chocolate and/or cookies. I don't really get it...

This week, I volunteered on Monday and go again this afternoon (Marcy has ventured into Paris on her own to go to the Musee d'Orsay while I'm at the center). From 4 - 5:30 pm I work with the elementary school kids and then 5:30 - 6:30 with middle schoolers. The center is similar to the Y and the kids are too (I guess kids will be kids no matter where they are), though there's less structure and it is a bit more chaotic than I am used to. We help with homework (I actually helped a 9 year-old with French grammar on Monday!) and then there's not much else going on - so, on Monday I tried to review countries and their capitals with some of the kids and in doing so, I taught them the English names for the countries (Yes, each language has its own way of saying a country, e.g. La Suisse = Switzerland, le Pays Bas = Netherlands, l'Espagne = Spain).

I think the kids enjoy having me there and they ask me a lot of questions about English vocabulary. Some of the girls have also been drawing me pictures when they finish their homework. My plan is to go two afternoons a week until I leave. In fact, I'm heading there now...