My lessons are tailored to the needs of the individual learner, and therefore begin with an informal 'getting to know you' lesson where we discuss learning needs but also personal interests, learning strengths, interests and hobbies etc. For children some of this information will come from the parent, but it's important for me to get to know the child, too, before I plan our lessons.
I like the motto 'Work hard, play hard'. I expect our lessons to be a lot of work and a lot of fun.
With children, especially those who have some learning difficulties, I plan very varied, active lessons. For example in an hour's lesson a learner might do:
- 15 minutes of reading
- 15 minutes of hands-on recognition, sequencing or writing of words or letters
- 10 minutes of spelling activities and checks
- 15 minutes of writing which pull together all the skills already practiced
- and then a little reading of a new text to round off everything we've achieved.
I'm happy to follow specific programmes which your child is already working on - for example other online courses, or Toe by Toe (for dyslexic readers) or an English text book (for English as an Additional Language learners).