Numbers, Words, and the CUTEST kids ever

So I've posted a couple of times about my research job, and you may have picked up from my tone that lab work is most likely not my life's calling (if it is, Lord save my brain cells!). I've also mentioned that I work at the library in the evenings (Mon and Tues from 5-9 and Wed and Thurs from 3-6). I'd have to say that I love it! Refreshing is the perfect word to describe my nights in the building of books. The summer tutoring program started after the kick-off party (I wrote about that in a previous post), and I enjoy it so much that I actually spend afternoons in the lab looking forward to working with the little kids once I'm free from protein purification.

I have my own tutoring schedule and I help grade school kids with math and or reading. I tutor a total of 8 kids and I love them all. They each have a day of the week when they are scheduled to come in for an hour. My task is to keep them thinking during these summer months and help them get ahead for the upcoming school year, but most importantly, to make learning fun. We have games here at the library that we use to work on math skills. For example, I've played multiplication war and bingo, matching games, and helped kids fix addition, subtraction, and multiplication puzzles. I gave one little boy a fun addition lesson at the chalkboard. He got to be creative and draw butterflies and dinosaurs and other creatures to illustrate the problems. I taught a 3rd grader how to play scrabble. I had her do all the math and keep score, so she was having fun and working on spelling and math at the same time. I even made up nerdy rhymes and used funny voices while enforcing repetition, repetition, repetition to try and make memorizing multiplication tables fun. The little girl I was working with that night hid under the table when her mom came to pick her up because she didn't want to leave - it was an awesome feeling of accomplishment for me!

I let the kids pick out books on whatever topics they want when we work on reading. I try and make it less strenuous for the littler ones by striking a deal with them - I'll read this page if you read the next one.

On Monday nights, I also get to help out with story hour. I read a book called "Messy Molly" to the kids last night, and when I finished, I was in an awesome mood. The little kids get so interested in the simple books and they ask the funniest questions and their innocence is too adorable.

My tip of the day for you: if you're feeling down for any reason, find a little kid and play with him or her. My job here at the library has made me realize that it's nearly impossible to keep a frown on your face when you're around little kids. They're so darn sweet! :)