C E Mitchell Tutoring Services LLC

Wednesday, June 20, 2018 by Alexis Bridges | Offer

Hello Parents!

If we currently provide reading tutoring for your child, they are eligible to receive an online account to Learning Farm.

Learning Farm is a great additional resource that helps build fluency, vocabulary and comprehension for struggling readers. It also incorporates every curriculum standard for Reading in grades K-8 which helps students prepare for state standardized testing.

In order to register for this service, your child must have high-speed internet access from a computer or tablet.

Once your child registers, we will periodically assign lessons based on their reading comprehension. We will also include instructions on how to complete the assignments.

For more information, please fill out the Contact Us page and submit it to us.

Monday, March 19, 2018 by Alexis Bridges | Tips

 Math is a life long skill used daily in real life situations. Its purpose is to help us manage time, money, handle everyday situations that involve numbers and patterns in the world around us. It also enables us to make predictions, solve problems, make sound decisions and use technology like calculators and computers to help solve problems.

Some reasons why children may not understand basic math concepts:

• Have trouble counting
• Have trouble understanding that a number can be used to describe any group with that amount in 
• Have difficulty recognizing and writing numbers
• Skips numbers when counting, long after other kids the same age are able to count in order
• Doesn’t tend to recognize patterns and may not be able to sort items by size, shape or color
• Unable to mentally calculate basic addition and subtraction problems
• Doesn’t understand the concept of common math terms such as “more than”, “less than”, “total,” “product,” or “split.”

• Doesn’t make the connection between related math facts or “fact families,” such as 5 + 5 = 10, so 10 ‒ 5 = 5
• Struggles to line numerals up neatly in columns when solving math problems

• Has a hard time telling time
• Has difficulty using math in real life such as budgeting or doubling a recipe to make it for more people
• Has trouble understanding maps and charts

10 Ways Parents Can Help Their Child with Math at Home

1. Have your child count down the time (weeks, days and/or hours) to a special day or holiday
2. Have your child measure ingredients for a recipe you are making.
3. Encourage your child to track or graph scores or stats for a favorite sports team.
4. Ask your child to count the change at the grocery store, or to estimate the total cost while you are shopping. Or, with older kids, to help track the family budget.
5. Explain what you’re doing whenever you use a measuring tape, a scale, or a ruler. Ask for your child’s help.
6. Play games and do puzzles with your child that involve math.
7. Count forwards and backward from different starting places. Use household items to practice adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.
8. Hunt for patterns around your house and your neighborhood such as patterns in clothing, in wallpaper, in tiles, on toys, and among trees and flowers in the park.
9. Create a food chart to record the number of meats, fruits, and vegetables that your family eats each day.
10. Have your child look through many children’s books and songs that repeat lines or passages in predictable ways, allowing children to recognize and predict the patterns.

Friday, September 22, 2017 by Alexis Bridges | Tips

Reading has become a fundamental part of my every day routine. Whether it's a motivational book, political satire article or latest online entertainment news, I feel that it educates and empowers any area of life that I'm interested in. We live in an age where we overflow with information, but reading is the main way to take advantage of it.

Throughout the years of educating students, it is usually a common question for parents to ask me how they can help their child at home build their reading fluency and comprehension. From my experience based on collaborating with other teachers, attending workshops and online research I decided to share some strategies that made a huge impact on past students that I worked with.  

In order to help a child who struggles with reading, let's look at some reasons why they may struggle.

First, it may be that a child is not able to recognize certain patterns and sequences in words. Since reading is based on understanding patterns and sequences, children should think about patterns of word order in spoken language, patterns of letters in spellings, relationships between words, as well as sequences of words in sentences.

Second, a child may struggle with memory such as remembering what has previously been read to see if what is currently being read makes any sense. Their memory can also be critical in recalling which symbols represent which sounds.

Third, reading is an activity that depends heavily on multi-tasking. A reader has to simultaneously work out what each word might be and consider whether it makes sense in the context of that sentence, while all the time thinking about whether the text as a whole is making sense.

Other additional factors that may influence a child's lack of reading include: limited exposure to books and stories, lack of motivation, lack of confidence and lack of resilience. 

Here are some simple reading strategies for your child that will help build fluency and comprehension.

• Make it a routine by setting a specific reading time and place (free of distractions) for your child to read. Setting a designated time and place will help your child view reading as a normal scheduled daily activity.

• Read aloud with your child. This gives you an opportunity to identify and correct your child's tone, emphasis and syntax while their reading. 

• Practice repeated reading with your child. This helps them identify their mistakes and promotes self correction. 

• Let your child turn the pages. It is enjoyable for the child but also helps them stay more focused on the book.

• Read from a variety of children’s books such as: fairy tales, song books, poems, and information books.

• While your child is reading, ask questions such as: Why do you think the author wrote this story? What character in the story reminds you of someone in real life? If you were the main character in the story, what would you have done and why?

• Use online reading programs from home such as Raz Plus or Fluency Tutor. Most school systems use these in the classroom. They help with building vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. Make sure you gain permission from your child's homeroom teacher before doing so.  

• Take your child to the local library to check out books. Most popular children's books are found there and it's an affordable way to give your child access to a wide range of books. Taking your child to the library also turns reading into a special occasion.