Carlton TP #10

Forth tutee session with third grade twin, DH,  American born of Korean parents. Monday, March 31, 6:30-7:30pm

We all meet at the main Library on Park Street. Today I looked for some worksheets using the Lego Chima characters but could find nothing but coloring pages. Apparently, the series is too new to be incorporated into many educational materials yet. Too bad, because the Star Wars theme worked out really well last week. I printed the pages anyway, to use as a reward today.

DH first asked me about Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge. Last week, he asked me if "Jack Sparrow" was a real pirate and I had to explain the difference between movies, especially these modern fantasy CGI ones, and real history. I think this is a real problem with many young children in school, confusing fantasy and reality. It impedes learning if they compare "boring" facts with exciting, fast-paced action. Both are OK, but entertainment is so pervasive, I think this is a bigger problem than in the past. The good thing about this is that DH had looked up the site I showed him last week of the museum that is reconstructing the ship and had obviously spent some time on it. Yeah!

We got back to reviewing his work. I showed him a short video of a wagon train historic reenactment and compared this to a Hollywood version. He was quite interested and noted some details matching his reading (Indians, circling wagons, settlers possessions).

Then we reviewed his current homework that was done. His mother told me he has a teacher that is so dedicated that she stays an hour after school to teach children who can stay material that there is no time to cover because of FCAT preparation. He does some of his homework then. A story I have heard from many teachers. Reviewed his spelling words for this week and he can write all 20 flawlessly correct. Vocabulary is new. The reading is OK, but he admitted to not taking my advice. I had him independently read the questions and check answers and he corrected most errors. The math was geometry and again, he had made silly mistakes he caught independently upon review.

We were joined by Matthew a little early and I directed them both to a little library search challenge. I showed them how to use the catalog search to find specific references. So instead of "Pirate" we searched for "Blackbeard" and "Queen Anne's Revenge" to find a few items. Then we searched the adult stacks for the section on historic wrecks and found a book with maps. Perusing this illustrated book, he found things of further interest, including wrecks off the coast of Korea and in Florida. Matthew found another junior pirate book they decided to check out.