Working with Children

After almost 2 months In Milano I have been given the opportunity to work with three little girls ages 5, 9, and 11 on their english.  These are family friends of my host family and so I am going to be keeping their names private.  I have really found a home here in Milano with my friends, my host family, and other outside activities.  I was approached on being a tutor for these three young girls who are already fluent in Spanish and Italian, but their parents would love for them to learn English as well. (To say the least I am impressed and they already know more languages than me!)

I have grown up babysitting and being a nanny for two of the best little girls at home and love to be around children so I was more then thrilled to except the job.  Although I speak english it has been awhile since I have studied the language and have never taught it before.  I have been doing research on line and found a couple of fun games to play as well as drawing many pictures for the five year old to learn basic words.  It has been a challenge because I tutor them at 6pm and they are more than tired after a long day of school.  Only after having two lessons with the girls I have found tricks to keep them entertained by coloring pictures, singing songs, and just playing and speaking in english.

I have learned that just hearing Italian has helped to pick up on words.  I listen to my host family speak and it helps me to better learn the language, so I thought I might give that a try when teaching the girls english. I have also gotten to use my artistic skills during out lessons as the youngest loves to draw pictures!  We wrote out the alphabet and drew pictures underneath each one, while I had the older girls answering questions I had written out for them.  I have noticed how difficult it is to engage young children into learning a new language but have excepted the challenge.

I am excited to see the improvement as the girls have already picked up a few words and colors and have asked for me to come back.  This makes me feel blessed to be so lucky to work with children and help them learn just like many of my teachers did when I was young.

The Final picture we drew after practicing our letters for the day