The fun side of tutoring

Every Monday afternoon I tutor a third grade boy in reading and math.  While he is a little behind his grade level in both subjects, he frequently surprises me with his thinking.  For example, before Christmas break we were working on filling out a multiplication chart and, while he had told me he didn't know how to do multiplication, he figured out quickly that, in the 'threes' for example, each number in the sequence was just three more thatn the one before.  Today, we worked on a page of multiplication problems and, while he referred to the chart for some answers, he was counting by twos, threes, fives etc. to solve the others. It was fun to watch.  Each week we also play a math board game and I was very pleased that today he suggested some variations on the game.  It's such fun to watch children's brains work.