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Maximize the Benefit of Having a Math Tutor in Vancouver Island BC, And Run Errands at the Same Time!

Maximize the Benefit of Having a Math Tutor in Vancouver Island BC, And Run Errands at the Same Time!

If your child is struggling with Math they will benefit from having an in-home tutor. There are local Math Tutors in Vancouver Island, B.C who are skilled at making learning easier. They create lesson plans and activities that will make Math applicable to your child and make learning interesting and exciting to them. Because your Math Tutor can only spend a few hours a week with your child, there are ways you can help your child learn and maximize the benefit of having a Math Tutor in Vancouver Island, B.C.

 

Can going grocery shopping help your math tutor in Vancouver Island BC? You bet it can!

Going to the grocery store can be turned into one of the most useful and practical educational experiences. Your Math tutor cannot take your child to the store with them, but this is a normal weekly or even daily activity for most families in Vancouver Island.

As adults, we use mental math and estimation each time we do our shopping. We are comparing prices, considering what brand of milk is worth more per gallon, estimating about how much chicken broth will fit in the crock pot for tomorrow night’s soup. Even quickly multiplying how much chicken to buy for your family and the guests coming over for dinner. You probably don’t realize that you are using Math skills because it is such a normal part of everyday life. As your children grow up, they will also be required to use these same skills.

Why not include your child in the grocery shopping process. It may take them a little longer to figure out what to buy, but it will be good practice for using Math in every day life- and they may even enjoy it and want to go shopping with you more often!

Turn shopping into a game instead of a chore. Formulate a story problem by asking your child to figure out how many chicken drumsticks to buy if every one will eat 2 pieces and there are 5 guests coming for dinner and also including the 4 members in your family. They will need to do some addition and multiplication to figure out that they need 18 pieces of chicken. Then follow up the question by asking them how many total kilograms the packages of chicken weigh or how many dozen pieces there are.

You can even incorporate some healthy learning into your shopping trip as well. Give your child the challenge of finding the yogurt with the least amount of fat and the one with the greatest percentage of fat. Then ask them how many grams less the lowest fat yogurt has. Then let them choose the yogurt they think is the healthier option.

When buying toilet paper most companies advertise the number of sheets in each roll. Ask your child to find the toilet paper with the best value. Even if it takes you a little longer to accomplish your regular shopping, consider it an extension of your Math Tutoring sessions.

Involving them in shopping for ingredients and choosing items at the store will keep your child engaged instead of bored and dragging their feet following you up and down the aisles. There are many more ways to incorporate educational activities into your daily life. Your Math Tutor will thank you!

How to help your French Tutor in Vancouver Island, B.C. by encouraging French Learning at Home

How to help your French Tutor in Vancouver Island, B.C. by encouraging French Learning at Home

Learning a language can be difficult for a child if they are only studying it a few hours a week.  The best way to learn a language is to be fully immersed in it. If you moved to a French speaking country, your child would pick up the language in no time. However, there are ways to facilitate your child’s learning and help your French tutor in Vancouver Island, B.C. by encouraging French learning at home and in your daily activities.

1. Your French tutor may be teaching your child French songs. Try to learn these with your child so that they can practice the language at home. Singing is one of the best and most ancient ways of memorization. You can even ask your French Tutor to sing more songs to your child so they can grasp the subject easier.

2. If your child is learning about French culture, consider cooking French food with them. Ask your French tutor to spend some time introducing French foods and recipes during the tutoring session. You can also help your child use their French by using the French names for foods you eat regularly like fruits, vegetables, bread, milk, etc.

3. Do role playing activities together.  After making a French meal, set up the dining room like a French restaurant.  They can write a script with their French tutor. First they can practice being the server, explaining what the food is and how to take the orders.  Then they can also practice being the guest and learn the proper way to order their food just as if they were in a restaurant in France.  Take this a step further by taking your child to a local French restaurant in Vancouver Island and let them order their meal in French.

4. Play familiar card or number games (using French). Any opportunity to count in French will ingrain the French numbers into your child’s memory. Play games that require counting such as dice or card games. Cribbage is a game that uses counting as well as addition, so they can practice French and Math at the same time.

5. Find children’s books written in French that your child can read with you and with the French Tutor. Try to find a book that your child is already familiar with and that they enjoy reading.  Encourage them to read aloud so they can practice their pronunciation.

6. Turn your house into an interactive flash card. Ask your French Tutor to make labels for things around the house such as the window, table, refrigerator, closet, light, etc. and post them around the house so that your child gets used to seeing the French word when they look at the objects.

7. Let your French Tutor know about the subjects that interest your child, so they can use them as conversation ideas during their tutoring sessions.

These are just a few ways you can increase your child’s interest and practice of the French language.  You will see improvement in their skills and at the same time they will be enjoying the learning process with you and with your French tutor.

How to Make Math More Fun during Math Tutor Sessions

How to Make Math More Fun during Math Tutor Sessions

Teaching young kids as a math tutor is one of the most enriching experiences you are going to have. Their innocence and perpetual sense of wonder will warm your heart but their fragile ego and short attention span will make teaching difficult. You might be facing a lot of challenges as a math tutor because it is a subject that tends to get boring without the help of visual aids. Use imagination, creativity and some simple tricks to transform your math tutorials into sessions the kids will look forward to.

Integrate Math tutoring with real life

As a math tutor (whether you are a parent or hired help), tell the kids about the history of math. How mathematics was invented, what are its applications in real life, what were the ancient methods of counting (like the barter system), how math is a part of almost all daily activities and so on. Once children know how the subject relates to real life they will be more interested in learning it.

You can use the daily sports section in your newspaper and relate it to math problems. Calculating winning percentages, baseball scores and batting averages directly out of the newspapers will excite the kids and give them something different to do than solving textbook problems.

Use real coins to teach currency values instead of plastic/cardboard cut outs. Kids love to touch and use “grown up” things, and real money is sure to hold their interest.

Use the names of your students in the math problems. This will make them laugh and then listen carefully. For example, if there is a girl named Daisy in your tutoring sessions, say “Daisy had three chocolates and lost two.”

Give Incentives to motivate while tutoring Math

Foster healthy competition. Arrange informal competitions like “math wiz of the week” for the best performer of the week. You can also announce small treats like candy or marshmallows as prizes for solving an especially difficult problem or asking intelligent questions.

Publicly acknowledge sincere efforts as kids love to be praised. You can also tell their parents about how well their kids are doing in the math tutorials. Kids are generally super-sensitive, so never insult, mock or scold them in public. Treat them with patience and respect and they will fall in love with the subject.

Some work and some play while being a Math tutor

Include recreational activities in your math tutorials. Allow the kids to count with interesting pasta or breakfast cereal. Create a pool of used toys from your friends and neighbors and make the tutoring environment a kid friendly place.

Colorful Lego blocks can be used for teaching shapes, as they are a fun substitute to the textbooks that almost all children hate.

Involve the parents too as good teaching is a team effort. Ask for genuine feedback about the kid’s interest level in math and whether the pupil is more inclined towards the subject after the math tutoring sessions.

Customize your teaching style according to the personality of the student. When talking to a little girl, introduce pink teddy bears or dollhouses in the math problems. Similarly, if a little boy loves hockey, give him an addition problem to solve about hockey sticks. Make mathematics fun for the kids and they will love you as their math tutor!

Top 10 ESL Tutoring Tools For Students in British Columbia

Top 10 ESL Tutoring Tools For Students in British Columbia

English is a pretty daunting language to learn for beginner, non-native English speakers who grapple with all the contradictions and weird rules associated with the language. Thankfully, lots of online and offline resources or ESL learning tools are available for non-native English speakers who want to polish their usage, grammar, speaking and writing abilities.

Dave’s ESL Cafe – http://www.eslcafe.com/grammar.html

Dave Sperling is a renowned teacher of English as a second language. He has come up with an in-depth site providing hundreds of grammar lessons. The lessons include word usage, vocabulary, sentence structure, noun placement, verb tenses, conversational skills, phonetics, differences in the meaning of English words based on countries and nationalities and linguistic practices.

ESL Movie Guides – http://www.eslnotes.com

For a rather novel way of learning English, as an ESL tutor or ESL student, you can use the help of the site English Learner Movie Guides to brush up your ESL skills. If you are fond of movies and Canadian or American culture, you can learn English usage with the help of this website. Popular movies and their plots/plot summaries are used to discuss and teach the English language and idioms.

English Conversations for ESL students – http://englishconversations.org

For ESL students who prefer podcast instructional tools, these downloadable audio files can come in really handy for practicing English speaking and listening skills. You can either stream or download the audio files to listen to English conversations. You can learn vocabulary, word usage, proper tone and word pronunciation via ESL audio files. Many of the audio clips are bilingual as well, helping people of non-English speaking countries to decipher a new language.

Grammar Exercises – http://www.english-4u.de/grammar_exercises.html

Learning fluent English grammar is a difficult and challenging proposition. If you wish to acquire grammar skills, you can take the help of this online tool to practice your reflexive pronouns, plural nouns, adverbial clauses and verb tenses. This site carries an exhaustive collection of quizzes that cover the A to Zs of English grammar.

507 Most Misspelt Words for ESL studies – http://www.esldesk.com/spelling/misspelled-words

English can be a very confusing language for non-native speakers with its strange spelling that bear hardly any resemblance to their pronunciation. So if your ESL tutoring client feels confused by English spelling, you can take the help of this tool to improve their English spelling knowledge and to avoid the pitfalls of common spelling errors.

Offline ESL Resources

There are many offline learning tools for ESL tutors and ESL students such as downloadable PDF files that offer instructions in basic and advanced interpersonal communication skills, cognitive academic language proficiency, listening comprehension, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar and word order, speaking fluency and pronunciation.

ESL University Courses

You can also enrol in online or offline business English courses or ESL courses offered by Canadian universities, American and Australian universities as well as by British universities through the British council. Most of these ESL courses can be taken online and last for three to four months. They concentrate on improving your reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.

You can choose from basic level or advanced level courses depending on your proficiency level.

School is Easy Tutoring can then help guide you through these courses with an ESL tutor, including TOEFL tutoring and preparation.

Educational activities to do with your kids in Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada

Educational activities to do with your kids in Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada

Vancouver Island offers a range of recreational activities for your family. It has lots of museums, parks, gardens and animal tours to keep your kids enthralled. If you want your kids to learn a bit about the culture and history of the place in a fun way, you will have various options of doing so in Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada.

Outdoor Education and Adventure trips

Take your kids along with certified naturalists on a whale tour. Whales are one of nature’s most majestic creations and a glimpse of them in their natural surroundings is sure to capture your kids’ interests. There are a total of more than 80 whales in Vancouver Island’s waters and you are sure to spot one.

A nature trip in Vancouver Island will include a visit to Race Rocks Ecological Reserve near the southern part of Vancouver Island. Plan a trip to the ecological reserve and show your kids the entrancing marine world of colourful fish, sea lions, and gray, humpback and mink whales.

Next, give your children a glimpse of the city of gardens. Vancouver Island has a bloom count of over two billion flowers and the hanging flower baskets make an absolutely beautiful sight, aside from being an educational experience in biology and plant life. Take your kids to the famous Beacon Hill Park, which has a multitude of exotic flowers, manicured grounds and wonderful fauna like wild peacocks. Point out the special features and characteristics of the animals at the petting Zoo
and give your kids a nature lesson they won’t forget.

You can then get a wonderful view of Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic mountains. If you are visiting in the summer, don’t forget to take your family to the Luminara Lantern Festival.

Wild Play amusement park is your next destination where your kids are going to experience the wonders of deep forests while learning about ecology and environmental sciences. The Shaw Discovery Centre will give them a taste of local marine life, complete with microscopes and other educational instruments.

Don’t forget the famous bug zoo specially designed for kids with all kinds of creepy crawly bugs designed to enrapture kids.

History, culture and local cuisine to educate children in Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada

After the invigorating outdoors, it’s time to explore Vancouver Island’s rich culture. The first place to take your kids is the B.C. Royal Museum. The extensive and interesting history of B.C is depicted in this museum with detail. There is an interesting interactive area for kids to help give them a tutoring lesson on history that is much more fun than text book learning.

The Oak Bay and Panorama recreation centers have activities and facilities designed to capture the interest of kids with a range of interactive games. If your kids are slightly older, take them on one of the guided Architectural tours and watch them take in the structural beauty of the place while the guides explain the building types and architectural features. This would be great for boys who like to build with Lego and blocks, and may spark educational interest in building.

Lastly, don’t forget to round off your visit with a trip to Vancouver Island’s local food market. This food market is teeming with fresh produce especially in the winters. Take your pick of the brightest tomatoes, juiciest oranges and the creamiest cheeses and take out your kids to a delightful picnic lunch or treat them to the famous food harvest festival. But be sure to sneak in a science tutoring lesson on nutrition, explaining vitamins, minerals and perhaps even why these foods are good for human digestion.

Great Resources for Tutors on iTunes U for Elementary School Kids

Great Resources for Tutors on iTunes U for Elementary School Kids

Education has always been an indispensable tool for human beings to learn the ways of the world and become enlightened. In this age of information technology, the Internet has become a versatile and omnipotent tool that has completely changed education. Like e-commerce tools, there are e-education tools that have taken over the academic world.

For, instance, the iTunes U courses geared towards elementary education, contain a wealth of information, which can be accessed by both students and teachers alike. The quality of the digital content is incredible. Through these courses, teachers can guide their students on all subjects and on almost on any topic in a much improved manner.

Mathematics, Reading, and Writing Tutoring Tools

Some of the best approaches to help elementary school students with the basic skills of mathematics, reading and writing have been outlined. These courses include:

‘EAD 657: Administration of Instructional Programs’ deals with exploring the evolution and techniques of education models and the efficacy of such models; courses dealing with a string of reading techniques designed by teachers and students;

‘Best practice writing lessons’ has case studies on exemplary writing skills

‘How children think about math’ gives techniques children can adopt to solve mathematical problems, and how teachers can comprehend arithmetic so that they can teach their students in a simple manner. There’s one integral course on how to master different kinds of numbers and learn to use money via simple mathematical games and puzzles.

How to become a good tutor in Vancouver, B.C. using iTunes U

These days, it’s not enough to be an average tutor. A tutor can be called exemplary if they are able to come up with out-of-the-book teaching methodologies to enhance their students’ interest in tutoring. There are course series on iTunes U that focus on tactics to foster a sense of achievement in the classroom, which can also be applied to group tutoring sessions. Some of the course titles are ‘Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle Level Education: Resources’, ‘Paradise Valley USD’ and ‘Teacher Development’. These programs also focus on encouraging parents to take an interest in their children’s education. There is a series that also includes: handling special needs students, laws governing the handling of disabled children in classrooms, and following up with review committees.

Recognizing extraordinary opportunities while tutoring special needs students

Tutors can be instrumental in identifying and understanding the developmental peculiarities in different children particularly when they are very young. Courses under this section help the teacher to pinpoint these differences, and to come up with strategies for dealing with diverse learning styles. There is a course titled ‘Exploring children’s difficulties with language and literacy’ that guides teachers as to why a student might have reading and language comprehension problems. Another course offers ideas on how to deal with autistic children.

Being a holistic tutor by teaching about health and hygiene

This section on iTunes U comprises courses that lay emphasis on physical education. The courses, like ‘physical education’ and ‘Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living’ stress the need to develop healthy eating habits. The teachers, through these courses are able to focus on the all-round development of the students at the elementary stages of their education. Since childhood obesity is on the rise everywhere in the world, there is a useful video that points out the importance of physical education, through interactive games.

Integrating technology with education

This section has courses titled ‘Technology Integration’ and ‘TechTalk4Teachers-A podcast for teachers about teaching, learning, and technology’ which cover aspects on how to harness the potential of the latest strides being made in technology for improving the standards of elementary education on an overall basis.