So last year I taught a 4 year old student to read, write and do some math. We meet for 2 hours five days a week. The father wanted me to basically teach him to read and practice speaking English with him in a fun way.
I wasn't given much guidance or feedback so I basically just came up with fun ways everyday to make his learning as fun as possible, and it worked.
But now they don't want to send him to school yet and instead want me to teach him again this year. I've been trying to get him to write a little bit every day but he's really lazy. I settled on getting him to write only ten letters twice a day, but then one day he was sick and convinced me to just have him write nine letters, and now every day he has some complaint or excuse why he should have to write or should only have to write nine letters or eight letters or whatever.
He sees me as this guy who comes over to play with him, not as a teacher really.So he never wants to do anything that's not fun. I've figured out ways to do things in a fun way for the most part, but I'm wondering if I should keep things like this or if I should introduce a more structured school like environment starting in September.As it is I am usually for the most part at his mercy as to what he wants to do.So the past month or so we've been just playing with legos (which is good for talking, using his imagination, and improving his small motor skills) for most of the class. He does understand that we have to stop twice during the lesson and write 10 letters, but mostly we've just been playing with legos.
My method for having him read during these lego classes is writing little mail notes to him that use words I want him to learn and mailing them to him within the lego game. Also, I have some math games on my iPad that I try to interest him in as we play legos, so he's learning some math as well.
So my question is, for this upcoming year as I continue to teach him, should I keep letting him just have fun for the class or should I try to talk to the parents about telling him we need to have more of a structured class where he has math, writing, reading, etc.during certain times of our two hour lesson.
As it is although I feel like a bad teacher sometimes since most of our lessons are just talking about imaginary lego words, the parents seem happy with our classes and haven't come back with any complaints. And he is learning.It's just that I feel that if the dad came back and actually sat through and watched what we do during these lessons, it would look like I'm barely teaching him at all.
On the other hand, if I rock the boat and start talking to the mother about telling her son that I am his teacher and not his playmate, then he will start to feel the lessons as drudgery and will no longer be excited when I come and instead start not liking the lessons. Please give me your opinion!
Also, he's five and is a native English speaker, so I can talk to him, and part of the lessons are supposed to be me just keeping him in practice with speaking English to a native speaker.
Added (1). Our classes are mostly talking in imaginary lego WORLDS, not imaginary WORDS, lol
См. статью: Ok to keep tutoring as a game or should I try to introduce more structure?