If there is one thing that tutoring on Thursday taught me, it reminded me that I have no idea why the days of the week are in the order they are in. However, knowing that Sunday is three days after Thursday – Thursday being the day I tutor at 826 Valencia and Sunday being the day I’m writing this- means that I’ve really been lazy about posting on my volunteer experiences. Here’s a quick story from Thursday, three days ago.
On Thursday, I worked with two first graders on their homework packet. The packet included questions about the days of the week and lots of measured lines for practicing writing. I’ve really mastered the art of helping kids write correctly. I’m also a champ when it comes to helping them come up with words that start with a particular letter or making a sentence with a particular word. However, I have absolutely know idea how to explain which day is before Wednesday. They could both sing the order of the days of the week, but when faced with the question what day is before Wednesday they would blurt out any random day of the week. Sadly, I had know idea how to give them clues what day it might be. Finally I had them write out the days of the week in order on a sheet of paper. Then we would go through each question, and I would have them point to the write answer. Sometimes they would still get the answer wrong, which made wonder if I needed to explain the words ‘before’ and ‘after.’ After a few questions with this methods, they seemed to have mastered concept. I hope this method is not cheating. Obviously I want them to learn, but it isn’t one of the prerequisites for learning knowing why something is they way it is? If so, I guess I never properly learned the days of the week. Do any parents or teachers out there have advice on how to explain this in a better way?
The first grade homework packet was actually quite demanding. Neither girl finished with much time to spare, which was a shame because if they had we could have participated in a project helping to name and design a product for the Pirate store. I wonder what the girls would have designed. Something for mermaids? Or something for a pirate’s parrot? Learning to design a product seems more marketable than knowing your days of the week….
Maybe I could use characters named after the days of the week to help tutor....
