Me? A tutor?
It sounded a bit weird at first, but I’m kinda getting used to it, though I still do not believe I accepted tutoring my little cousin. Not that I was given a choice; my mom and aunt practically forced it onto me, making all the decisions without considering the concerned person here, i.e. me. The reason for my reluctance had more to do with my cousin than with the tutoring. It had always been mutual dislike between us; maybe it had to do with the age difference. An 8-years gap can be quite a lot for 2 kids living under the same roof, especially when both are only child to their parents. Anyway, it seems that the “dislike” has completely disappeared for now and for good, I’m hoping; these past years I had been so busy with school and other stuffs that I barely gave any attention to the persons living in my house.
Back to the tutoring… I’m helping her with her Urdu, preparing her for her exams in November which is quite far really, but she really needs it. On a side note, I’m starting to think my mom decided on this for me to deal with the language craze I was – am still having, though it has been reduced to only words rather than full sentences. Originally, it had been decided that she would go to my old tutor, but somehow it turned onto me, with my mom saying why go look for others when they already had a “qualified” (which I don’t really consider myself to be) person in the house. And so it was decided I would take the “job”, working with my cousin for an hour or so each Saturdays.
Today was the second lesson, which went out quite well. Last week, I tried to see on what level she was so that I could prepare an adequate working project for her. From her copybooks at school, I’ve seen a lot of grammatical or spelling mistakes which is quite normal for a someone of her age, but what disturbed me was that her teacher didn’t even see those mistakes and just told her that her work was good. Her teacher didn’t even take the time to explain anything to her, all she does is give the students some work and she is free for the whole teaching session.
I’m still working on grammars and vocabulary with my cousin, though at school she is already working on comprehensions and essays. I’m still hesitating to do that because I want to be sure she is capable of understanding and expressing herself fully before going on the the next level. While she can understand most of the words, she still is having problems with structures of sentences and verbs (everyone’s weakness at the beginning, I guess xD). I told her we are going to work on a small passage next week, just to see how she does, but essays are definitely off limits, for now. Maybe in a month or so.
That was well, a … brief overview of my tutoring 
If any of you have some ideas on what approach to take, please do share it with me ^.^
Okay, so I got the reproach of ‘boycotting’ our blog! So here i am with a comment! Euhh, the post is really tutor-like, like i already told you! And I guess the approach you’re taking seems good for now, but you could input some sentences-making exercises as practice for structure and all.
sayuka said this on March 7, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Tutor-like is good
I guess xD I already am doing the sentences making exercises, making her use the words and verbs I have taught her. =)
bbZuSh said this on March 7, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Perhaps it is you who may be insecure of your own talents
be guided by your natural ability and in so doing you are also learning alongside your cousin – and fun is often in learning 
Being creative allows the mind fresh input – keep motivating and good luck
philosophyofmind said this on March 7, 2009 at 3:29 pm
It could be true, because I’ve always known languages weren’t really my forte and well, I’m not so sure I can actually do it. But I do admit it’s fun, because I’m remembering things I thought I had forgotten. Thanks Peter =)
bbZuSh said this on March 7, 2009 at 3:38 pm
When I was teaching my brother I usually would write up sentences with into a story.
And then I would ask him to continue the story by completing the missing sentences. At first he was a bit slow, but then after a few try he managed to do it quite well.
And then I would show him pictures and ask him a few question to make him learn about verbs.
Now I am teaching him more on grammar. Quite hard, although unfortunately, he has a quick start since he watch Disney Channel. Due to that, he can speak English and not our native language.
For one I suggest you to communicate more and try to empathize with her way of thinking. From there you can know how can you teach her.
shiro said this on March 7, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I think you are proceeding greatly by starting from the basics and getting into more complicated things later on. This requires more patience which school teachers lack, to the detriment of students. I think due to you she will significantly improve in the subject.
And by the it’s kind of you to be tutoring your little cousin. It reminds me of the time when my sister was helping me with my French.
We barely used to get along before that and now we are really close. 
morinn said this on March 7, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Bruno said this on March 7, 2009 at 8:08 pm
wouldn’t “me? a torture?” be something more appropriate as title
anyways that’s as far as i got on reading this one 
Viru5 said this on March 7, 2009 at 9:46 pm
@ shiro
Making the sentences into a story sounds really good. I’m gonna try this =) Thanks
@ morinn
Thanks. Kindness has nothing to do with it though xD I just want her to do well.
@ Bruno
Thanks for the advice
@ viru5
*sigh*
bbZuSh said this on March 8, 2009 at 12:20 am