Half an hour of blessed relief!
I don’t know about you, but after 6 weeks of “home school” I am just about to ready give up! Not only am I ready, I WANT to!
I am the mother of a 7 year old (but you’ve only got 1, I hear you shout!), yes, only 1 child but I’m also supposed to be working during this time. Also, said 7 year old DOES NOT want to work. Zero interest in learning – zilch. No surprises there really, seeing as both her father and I are totally un-academic and her father is a “creative”!
Whilst attempting to home school I, like everybody else, have a new-found respect for teachers. I did have a vague idea of what I was getting myself into as I spent a year in Asia teaching English as a foreign language, but I was 10 years younger then, and most of my time was spent teaching business people in corporate buildings, not hoards of 7 year olds and certainly not my own 7 year old.
Anyway – I digress.
I wanted to tell you about my half hour of pain relief, provided by my new friend Janet at The Tutor Team. The Tutor Team have only just started providing extra learning opportunities for primary-aged children (they mostly focus on kids at secondary school taking exams) but in these unparalleled times (see, I didn’t say “unprecedented!) demand is rising due to parents like me realising that they
a) can’t get their kids to concentrate and
b) genuine concerns that when the child is already behind (like mine) 8 weeks of watching a tablet day-in-day-out aren’t exactly going to help with their academic development.
30 Minute Maths
So we had half an hour with Chris from The Tutor Team via Facetime. I swear that man is some sort of demi-God. He had the patience of saint and managed to actually engage Phoebe for a full 20 or so minutes (the rest of the time she was hiding behind me). I learned something (didn’t know what a Trapezium was!) and the time was just enough for her. Plus I cannot tell you the relief I felt knowing that she was in the hands of a professional who didn’t put his head in his hands every time she said she didn’t know something when 5 minutes ago, she clearly had done.
Chris uses a system called Corbett Maths. Maths teacher John Corbett created this system as a way of bringing maths to life by giving examples of maths working in the real world. It certainly worked for Phoebe and I think anybody who lacks confidence with maths would benefit from this system. I know I would have done.
I hope that in the wake of Covid 19 The Tutor Team will continue to provide this for little children beyond home school, as I suspect there is going to be quite a high level of demand once the children go back to school. And I can’t think of a better man than demi-God Chris to take on this challenge!
Zoë Schoon
About Zoë
Zoë is joint owner of Pink Spaghetti Yeovil, Mendip & Warminster, with her business partner Jemma. They provide a Virtual PA Service to local businesses overwhelmed with administration tasks, social media demands, or the need for some professional organisation skills. Zoë forged a career in London doing press and marketing in the theatre world, as well as several high level PA roles plus a stint teaching English in Asia.
