First Month With Leah

First Month With Leah

           My name is Caitlyn Flores, and I am a junior in high school. For my AP Language class, we were asked to come up with a beneficial project that we would enjoy working on. I thought about it for a while and could not think of anything I would really enjoy, so when my teacher mentioned an available project I was first to ask for more information. A single mom needed help with motivating her third grader who just recovered from leukemia. She was not interested in doing her work because she only saw it as work, therefore her mother reached out for a student to come, making the work fun and easier to get through. I took interest in this because I love working with kids, and may even be considering a job in the future involving children. Therefore, I contacted the mother, Ms. Cecchini, and she agreed with me coming over every Wednesday to help with the homework that day. On my first day there, towards the end of October, Ms. Cecchini was very welcoming. Leah, her daughter, and Michael, her son, were friendly as well.  We began with math, which she had little trouble with. We moved onto reading, which was more difficult for her. Leah would stray off of the topic, asking me to stop or trying to change the topic. The tutoring sessions with her later on continued in the same fashion, except she began to get more comfortable with me around. One time she even begged me to stay when it was time to go. A few times I would bring her candy to motivate her to work, and it actually made a difference. Leah even tried making deals with me, saying she would read the whole chapter if I brought her candy next week. All in all, my first few visits, in the end of October, and my first month with her, all of November, could not have gone better. Hopefully as we get more comfortable with each other, I can think of different ways to motivate Leah, other than candy.