Bobby - TP_child 5

For the first half of our session tonight, Jun and I read through a chapter in his material science textbook. It was all about sound production, loudness, and pitch. I like reading through this book with Jun because it seems like somewhat of an "integrated" lesson in which Jun can use reading, writing (when I ask him to write responses to questions I ask him), and science. In this chapter, one of the things Jun learned was how sound travels through the different states of matter. He knew the term "states of matter" and I was pleasantly surprised by this. I drew out three boxes and explained the states of matter to him, and that sound travels more quickly through solids than liquids or gases because the particles/atoms are closer together. I had to explain what particles and atoms were. He thought I was talking about someone named "Adam" which was kind of silly. As far as teaching him English, one thing I had to explain tonight was when to say "the" (thuh) and when to say "the" (thee). I told him that it all depends on the word following "the": if the word starts with a consonant, we say "thuh," but if it starts with a vowel, we say "thee." I think he understood this explanation. Additionally, I explained the difference between "prey" and "pray" when a picture of a praying mantis showed up. He asked me about this specifically, so I found this an excellent teaching opportunity.

The second half of our session tonight was purely reading. At first, we were going to read yet another installment of the Magic Tree House series entitled "Polar Bears Past Bedtime" for his class.  I found it rather hilarious that the polar bear on the cover looked like this:

...but I digress. Jun was really reluctant to read this book, so instead, I had him select one of his own books. It was a poetry/photography book about insects. He had never read it before, and upon seeing how long some of the poems were, was reluctant to read this one as well. I've noticed that Jun has been really unfocused over the last few weeks. I don't know if he thinks I'm his friend and that he doesn't need to work anymore...or what have you, but I don't think our last two or three sessions have been as productive as the first few.