English Teachers, Please Help Me!

Cutetwirler · (#1 (**permalink**))

Hi,

I teach English here in Japan; have a few classes and a few private lessons. Have my TESOL qualification and training etc BUT

Today I got an email from a mother who wants me to private teach her 6 year old girl. How on earth do you do a private lesson with a kid?

Games are no fun with just two people (unless you can tell me about cool 2 people games) and there's only so much story reading the kid will be able to listen to in an hour.

Please help me!!

Thanks

jasonbvr · (#2 (**permalink**))

I think I would just play with toys, forget English games. Play dollhouse or something I don't know. That is crazy, one to one with a 6 year old. I mean, you can teach a lot with just toys. Build Legos and do counting and colors like, "The red block with 1, 2, 3, 4 little dots, please." Go pretend shopping with barbies and you can teach clothing. Maybe Barbie wants to go to New York and London, countries, airplanes, taxis, subway. I would say just be really imaginative. But honestly, this mother should not be expecting a lot from you. I know some mothers push their kids really hard, but seriously the kid is just a kid. Also you could do matching card games with just the two of you. Write up a set of cards like months, days, seasons, weather, family, etcetera with one Japanese and one English. Just remember the kid hasn't learned Kanji yet. Also, get her mother involved and play Go Fish. Uno is also good for counting and colors but a little hard to teach a 6 year old to play correctly.

Now that I think about it, I think this mother is being rather sly and getting you to teach her by paying you to teach her kid. So don't worry if the kid doesn't learn anything, the mother probably will gain the most.

jasonbvr · (#3 (**permalink**))

Oh, you make the Go Fish cards out of anything. Example, sandwich, orange, fish and so on, then you say, "Do you have a fish?" I find that three cards in a set works best for me.

MMM · (#4 (**permalink**))

An hour is a long time, so I would break it into about 4 activities. Coloring together is a good one as you can talk about colors.

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English language story books are good, too.

I would think about making it about 45 minutes, or inserting some strictly fun time in that hour, as 60 minutes is a long time for a 6-year-old.

Cutetwirler · (#5 (**permalink**))

Thanks so much for your answers. I may be silly, but what is go fish?

I was thinking of doing flash cards with her and also songs like "heads, shoulders knees and toes" etc. The Barbie idea is ace. Anything I buy for these classes will be just for these classes (I only teach kids at other language schools, I have no stuff of my own) so I want to keep the cost to a minimum as Japanese women have a habit of pulling out of lessons at the last minute.

Thanks, people!

MMM · (#6 (**permalink**))

http://blog.livedoor.jp/coloring_page/

If you have a printer then this is a cheap prep.

Make sure you say have a cancellation policy (24 hours notice or they still have to pay)...that way you won't get stood up too often. It may feel hard to say, but it makes you look professional and in-demand.