Mentoring

I was asked if it made a difference whether I mentor a boy or a girl. It really does. I have mentored 2 boys and 1 girl. The first boy broke my heart when I first met him. He couldn't hide his disappointment when he met me, a chubby middle aged woman. He was hoping for a man. Many of the kids at this school have absentee dads, dads that are jerks or in jail. I don't play basketball. The drill is: I show up at school, sign in at the office. Then I drop off my junk at the mentoring room and go the child's classroom. We go down to the cafeteria and get lunch. Lunch drives me crazy as it is so bad. One step above dog food. We take lunch on a tray down to the mentoring room. The rest of the class has their lunch and goes outside for recess. Then the child eats his lunch. It usually doesn't take long, 10 or 15 minutes. Because I am a retired teacher, I always have the child read to me. Sometimes I read to them while they eat lunch. Almost always the child has a hard time reading. I know how to teach reading and I have many practice readers to help them. Then we do something fun. I love crafts. There is hardly a craft that I haven't tried. Boys don't like crafts as much as girls do. Boys want to go outside and play. Only once in four years did Halona say she would rather go outside and play. I used to teach children aged 3 to 6 so I really like to work with younger children. On the other hand, I have two boys of my own who are all grown up. So I do know about boys. We only have an hour together and it goes like the blink of an eye.
I said the right hand inside cover of Button Lover's Brag Book would be a breeze. I was wrong. You have to be very careful and follow the pattern exactly. The pattern changes at the corners and center top and bottom. Plus it is easy to get off. So after some frogging, I got the first frame done.
It doesn't look like I got much done on A Spot in the Mountains. But I worked on it for at least an hour. I guess my aim for today is to get all the framework in dark brown done. The filling in is pretty easy.
We are going out to eat tonight. It is United Nations Day and my birthday. I have lots of Barnes & Noble gift cards to spend. I intend to have a root beer float for dessert. Fun.
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