American For Hire

As a native English speaker in Spain, I'll never be more employable in my life. I now have secondary tutoring jobs every day after au pairing, Monday through Friday. Although I'm not wild about working an hour later every day, I truly enjoy the kids, the work and the extra income.

Aside from my Tuesday and Thursday reading buddies, I have agreed to do English classes with my friend's five-year-old son, who is having articulation problems in both English and Spanish, on Fridays. It's not actually therapy since I'm not licensed yet, but I can use my educational background to come up with games and activities that will help reinforce good habits. I'm excited for the challenge (his error patterns are pretty unusual, which I find professionally fascinating) and I plan to treat him with all the care and creativity I will use for my future clients. I actually got caught up daydreaming on my walk home about how we could pretend to be motorcycles to practice different sounds (you know - b's to rev the engines, v's for vrooming along, r's for braking, etc.) and didn't realize I was actually making noises to myself until a lady gave me a really weird look. Oops.

And I just started Monday/Wednesday classes this week with an 8-year-old girl whose parents want her to gain confidence speaking English. When I first got to their house on Monday, she was so nervous she hid behind her bed and wouldn't speak to me in either language for a while. But one of the most useful lessons I've learned, through both speech therapy and my job in a group home, is the importance of getting on to someone's level. So when she hid behind the bed, I simply walked in and sat straight down on the rug and ignored her dad's odd look. I mean, who wants to be towered over, especially when you're already nervous? By the end of that first hour we had bonded over her pet hamster and I got her talking to me in Spanish. I went back for our second class this evening with a storybook and a game. She still won't speak to me in English unless it's explicitly for the activity (ie reading aloud), but as we sat coloring together at the end of our second hour she told me, "I'm sad you're leaving!" "But I'll be back on Monday and we'll play more games!" "That's four days away! ...You could come back Friday, if you want."
The moment you win a kid over has to be just about the most gratifying moment in the world.
Now to get her to say that in the right language...