Exciting News!

I might have a job. Albeit a very part time job. 2 hours a week to be exact. Our friend Andy Jungkyun (see below for his new contribution to every post), mentioned to our favorite restaurant owner that I would be interested in tutoring any Korean children she might know. She said she would think about it and asked that same lunch if I would be interested in tutoring 2 young children twice a week. Neat!

We're still working out the details, but I'm really excited. I've never taught children before. I'm looking for ideas/suggestions from my teacher friends out there. It's 1 hour after school twice a week. One child is a little girl, about kindergarten age. The other is a 7 year old boy. I've been told they can recognize their ABC's but not pronounce them and they can say stuff like "Hi" and "Thank you!" (You know, like what I can say in Korean, ha!)

So I bought ABC flash cards, for $6 I thought this was a good buy (they have pictures of Apple, Car, etc too, vocabulary, yay!). I also bought a couple lesson books, Backpack Starter student book and workbook, and Backpack 1 student book and workbook.

Flash Cards package. You can't see the top right very well (dang you flash!), but it has "Ee - elephant - 코끼리" neat!

The first 2 pages of the starter Student Book and the first two pages of the starter Workbook.

The first 2 pages of the 1 Student Book and the first two pages of the 1 Workbook.

My initial thought was to use both books, but assign work to the 5 year old and the 7 year old respectively. The Koreans tend to be very modest and the 7 year olds mom (our favorite restaurant owner) speaks really really good English and she mentioned before that she's been teaching her son, I have a feeling he'll catch on really quickly even though she says he knows nothing. I also think a 7 year old boy would be offended by some of the more baby themes in the Starter book.

Both books come with CD's with songs to sing too, which is fun. (That's what all the words are about in the beginning, they're lyrics to follow along once they know the song.) Lots of coloring and puzzles and learning.

But final decision will be with the parents on books. I can always take them back, though they only had one set of each so I would have to order a second set of whichever one.

To start with, I have an idea about learning 3 letters a day and things that go with the letters. Then they can color a sheet of paper with a letter and something that starts with the letter and make a book to take home eventually. I know with little ones I can't just do one activity per hour though, that I have to switch it up often. I've been googling but I am definitely looking for suggestions.

This is after school, in addition to all their other school work, so I want it to be fun, light (so they aren't burnt out and uncooperative) while still learning.

And now, for Andy's contribution...