How to Tutor

I'm almost embarrassed at how much I learned from this book. Why did I never learn about the history of reading, writing or arithmetic before? I think I just assumed that I was being taught everything that I needed to know in school. I assumed that numbers must have been around from the beginning of time, like maybe they came from the bible or something. I had no idea that our decimal system is the youngest system being used. It didn't even occur to me that a system different from a ten value system could even exist. Can I blame this lack of knowledge on my conveyor belt education? Or at least the mentality that I was being taught everything worth learning about at school?

We are currently using the reading curriculum straight from this book. Kendi has learned more in the last week than the last year and half I've been teaching her to read. She doesn't have to sound out every single word anymore. We started completely over from the beginning and she's learning to sight read right off the bat. She can now sit down and read little reader books by herself in a minute or two when it used to take us several minutes to painstakingly get through one little book. I had even given up on the readers because it was not a happy experience. We tried Explode the Code next and I had to bribe her to do each page. Now she is so proud of herself when she zips through the little readers. Kendi loves the one on one time we spend at the white board talking about new words and sounds. I'm so glad we happened upon this great book and it was such a great deal on Amazon.

I'm not sure what to think about the writing and math. It suggest learning cursive and absolutely no printing. This book was published in the 70's and things have changed since then. Do schools even teach cursive anymore? I know that when I learned it, it was just for fun and we never used it afterward. I want Kendi to learn cursive, but I think I'd like her to learn to print as well. As for the math, it's not right for us. Kendi needs more hands on learning than this book gives. Kendi is good at memorizing, but I don't feel like memorizing is understanding when it comes to the concepts of math. We are currently exploring other math alternatives at this point. I do like how it explains the history of numbers and the emphasis that we should put on arithmetic and not just mathemathics. Before I read this book, I didn't even know there was a difference. It is also fun to see how things have changed in the last 40 years with education. I don't think it has gone the direction that the author was hoping it would.

We are really glad we found this book and it has been worth it for the reading lessons.