Monthly Archives: February 2015

Tuition Tip – Write Because It Is Fun

Recently I purchased an electric bicycle after many years of riding a conventional push bike.  I also had some time on my hands and sought out Henry Lawson for some inspiration for a reply as to why I bought an e-bike.  Here is what we came up with:

My solution for "When my knees begin to go"  - An electric bike

My solution for “When my knees begin to go” – An electric bike

When Your Knees Begin To Go

 
When you doubt that rising road and the gears just don’t seem right,

And the fear of climbing keeps you tossing through the night.

You don’t know how to take it, or whether your mates would care;

Because in the past you were fast; the cyclist with all the flair.

There were no mountains, just long hills with every one to win,

No ride too long, no wind too strong; you took it on the chin.

 

Of late things have altered and they create a troubled mind

As you start to run out of steam and are being left behind.

I’ve noticed without exception, as no-one escapes this devil’s play

“The gears are wrong”, “The wind is strong”, “Was that a fast kay?”

Coaxing words to lift you from friends that gather around;

Are to no avail, your breath still fails as you give to them more ground.

 

When laborious legs toil the thoughts of torturous reason

The mind seeks solace of just what might be sports of a lighter season.

Is there a way a cyclist may still ride with the pack;

Or is there a time you will find you just can’t wind it back?

You too will face the passing of the people that you know

When the rides are long, the wind is strong and your knees begin to go.

 

 

 

 

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Filed under creative writing, Poem, Posts, Short Story, Tuition Tips

Tuition Tips – Getting Your Child Ready For School

Tutor and student

Small group tuition, it’s almost one-on-one

IS YOUR PREPPY READY FOR SCHOOL?

“A stitch in time saves nine.”  How do you know if your pre-schooler is ready for the next big jump into primary school?

Does your child understand these words – “above” “below” “on” “in” “before” “after” “beside” “first” “second” “last’ “stop” “go” “left” “right” “top” “bottom” “middle”?

Pre-school education should help young learners with their spatial skills and prepare them for primary school, but there are times when these skills are not acquired.  This is no reflection upon the child, though not having an understanding can place the young learner at a disadvantage when they first attend primary school.

Can you imagine the difficulty a young learner will have following the simplest of directions if they do not have an understanding of the words from the list above?  In our tuition room we are seeing more instances where the parents of children in Years 1 and 2 are seeking help because their little ones are not keeping up at school.  How can a student fall into difficulty at such an early stage of their education?

Let the early years be play.  Young children learn through play, being read to, and through song.  Have any of these three things changed in the last decade?  Do children play with other children or with their parents like they used to?  Are they being read to by an adult?  Do the songs they listen to teach them about the spatial world around them?

The things we do with our children before they attend school are just as important as the education they receive before they become adults.  If you can get the foundations right the structure is strong.

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TUITION TIPS – CREATIVE WRITING WITH WORD GAMES

If your child hates to write, try this.

Ask them to write a simple sentence about a cat: “My cat is fat.” Don’t worry about spelling unless you cannot work out what they meant to write.  In that case ask them to rewrite it with the spelling corrected.

Then ask them to make that sentence one word longer: “My cat is very fat.”

  • Try again, “My cat Biffy is very fat.”
  • Try again, “My old cat Biffy is very fat.”

Then use another word for fat.

  • “My old cat Biffy is very large.”

Now for a prize …. extend this sentence using the word ‘and’ somewhere.

  • “My old cat Biffy is very large and lazy.”

There you are – from four words to nine.

Do it just before dinner, make the prize “You decide what we are having for desert” and it’s all fun.

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Tuition Tips – Did You Know…

Tuition Logo 2…that most learners will forget the last four weeks of learning over the six weeks of Christmas break?  Pretty much everything learned in November is lost by the time they go back to school in January/February.

Six weeks is a long break from learning and I doubt young minds require so much recovery time.  I come from a sports training background and know that such a break from training for a sports person would be detrimental to their ability to perform.  That is why professional sports people do not take a break, they alter how they train. That is also why we run holiday tuition programs for our students; to keep their minds prepared for the next year.

It is not just the Christmas holidays that causes a disruption to learning.  There appears to be so many events during the year that prevent our students building up momentum in in their learning progress. We have public holidays (about 12 days per year), school holidays (about 12 weeks per year), student free days (at least one after every school break), athletics sports day, swimming day, excursions to …., school camps (1 or 2 weeks per year), …

So, why do our students attend tuition during the school holidays? Because their parents believe education is the best method to open the doors to opportunity as we move through life.

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