What a beautiful day

        Yesterday a young man I tutor came complaining of a headache.  This is usually an indication that we are going to struggle with tutoring.  I do not know if he really had a headache and cannot decide this.  I do know he was struggling to learn.  He began by telling me he could not stay long.  What was he really telling me?  I think sometimes we as adults miss what is being said.  How often do we try to do something that just needs to wait till another day or after a nap so we can function better?  I really think that children that struggle to learn need to be given that same consideration we need to often give ourselves.
     We are supposed to tutor an hour.  At 20 minutes, he told me he needed to go home.  For him this had been a long 20 minutes. I asked him if he wanted to listen to the book on tape we are working on and he told me he could not do that.  I asked him to play a game with him before he left.  He agreed to this. He appeared to be struggling to focus.  I chose the game Sequence. We played and it took about 15 minutes and he left confident that he had succeeded at something. The rules say a player needs to make 2 sequences to win.  I only had him make one as he was already struggling.
     When another child came later in the day, he told me it was too beautiful a day to be inside. What as a tutor had I missed?  I too wanted to be outside but the equipment to tutor was inside. The balance board is easy to take outside but the cards and other things blow away.  Also the ball hanging from the ceiling is not easy to move.I told him we would work inside and then go outside.  We did not work as long and he did well.
     Today, when the first young man came he seemed to be feeling better. I asked him if he wanted to be outside.His face lit up. We took the balance board outside and I hung another ball up outside. We also worked with the number board outside.  We came inside to work out of the rocket phonics and play a card  go fish game with words.   Then we went outside to listen to the book on tape.  Today we worked a little longer than planned and he did not want to leave. We listened to the book on tape for 30 minutes. It is amazing how well learning can work when it is on the timetable and of the learner and not the adult.
     My daughter telling me that she had recently read some research on how some learners needed to be outside to learn helped me meet the learning needs of these two learners for these days.