Monday, June 7, 2010

What sound does 'g' make?

Nittya
Abbi & Bujji
I was in the school today (Monday) and tutored quite a bit. First the 7th and 8th standard grades, then the 3rd. The teachers here all teach by rote. Ex: T.H.E.N...then. G.O...go C.A.T...cat. They don't really focus on teaching the kids the actual sounds as much as pure memorization. They say it and the kids repeat it over and over. RSO is trying to help the teachers learn a more phonetic approach so the kids can learn to sound out a word on their own instead of pure memorization that g.o. spells 'go' yet not know that 'g' makes the 'guh' sound.
So with this little one, we started out with some Clifford books, then gradually moved down to the simple Dr. Seuss ABC book trying to come up with words that start with 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. Very slow and repetitive, but the kids need to learn the concepts.
Taught some of my girls about longitude and latitude tonight. It was their science reading for homework. They all love volunteering to read and I make them tell me after we read a sentence or section what we just read. Comprehension is hard when you're just working on saying the words. But when they ask what a word means they say, "Goals means?" And I'll say, "Goals means 'aim', or 'want'." You have to find a word they understand and sometimes you'll go through a couple until you see it register in their face. Fun and new for me.

Then play time!
Maybe it was the weather, or just the fact that I've adjusted to this routine, but today was great! Played duck duck goose, tag, sat on a bench and talked and took photo after photo because cameras are so the most popular item with the kids. Amy has challenged us to leave everything we have with the kids, emotionally, physically, and spiritually cus it's all coming to a close so soon. The kids soak up everything you give.
Rosemary & Nadia
Venamallar
'Uncle' (a house father) everyone loves.
Tierty
She, for whatever reason, started calling me 'mom.' So now whenever we see each other she says, "Hi mom." And I say, "Hi daughter." It's just our thing.
Seriously, for like 10 minutes this little one sat here and just jabbered away in Tamil. Apparently she really didn't care I never responded cus I had no idea what she was saying.
So cute.
And today was only in the low 90's so, of course, the kids all pulled out blankets to sleep with cus it was just way too cold.
???

3 comments:

  1. I bet Tamil will forever have in her memory the day she sat on the Yellow (yowsers!) bench and you tuned in the entire time. What a gift it is to be heard.

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  2. These are all adorable and such a great glimpse into the property there. RSO is doing a great work. Love the photo of that little guy holding the ABC book! You and the 'little one' on the bench. Might just be my favorite...

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