kids say/ do the darnest things

Ugh. I was reading the morning papers along with Banana Nut Crunch, and I was starting to get really sick from reading about the skeleton that was found in some old abandoned house. It doesn't get any worse, does it? It was quite nauseating, especially when there were pictures of the house inserted. I visualise and think too much for my own good. I can't fathom how anyone could live like that, amidst the amount of rubbish and the musky smell (I'd imagine), in a junkyard of a house.

But it's really pitiful to have died for ages without anyone knowing, or even being there as you left this world. Baffles me how the stench from a decomposing body did not get to the neighbours.

Anyhow it was quite gross, and did not go well with breakfast.

I'm up earlier than usual today, and I don't know why. I was up last night talking to my sis (who was up early at 6am and fretting about demonstrating later in the morning lol).

My poor coughing and wheezing brother is on MC today.

Anyhoo.

God has been answering all my prayers lately, re: my tutee kids! Thank you, Lord! But now, it's a different problem altogether.

I'd hoped and prayed my tutee kids wouldn't be soooooo smart they'd outsmart me, and I'd be stumped and embarrassed and sheepish. The P5 one has successfully managed to make me want to warmit braaarrd, within 2 weeks. But my little p3 tutee made me want to WARMIT BRRAAARD 30 minutes into the session. *takes deep breath*

Far from being overly brainy and intelligent, my little tutee hardly knows anything at all. So it was really tedious when I had to explain every other word in a sentence to him. Came to a point where I was so tired (physically, and just tired from talking), I said, "'Unreasonable' means ... not reasonable, you know?" as I explained the meaning of 'unreasonable' to him. Which of course wasn't helping, since he knew not what 'reasonable' meant.

I also went to the extent of trying my best to explain some words in Mandarin (beat that!) for him. Some easier ones, like what 'courteous', 'co-operative', 'stingy' meant. BEST PART WAS: He didn't understand what it was in Mandarin either.

I wanted to pull all my hair out.

"Ok what does 'violent' mean?"
"Got 2! One is the colour ... the other one is .. uhh I don't know how to say!"
"*proceedes to explain what violent really means* and the COLOUR, did you say? That is viOlet! *more explanation/ description*"

'Brought' and 'bought' are the same,
so are 'sacks' and 'snacks'.

"Ali has 4 sNacks of durians ...."

Indeed it was challenging. My little tutee kid warmed up to me within minutes, and when kids warm up to you, they get comfy with you, and start trying to be funny. He's so adorable though, but I don't think his mother would be too pleased if I'd allowed him to climb on top of my head, and not learn anything in the process. Sadly.

"So what is the difference between 'brought' and 'bought'? Ok what is 'brought'? What is the present tense of 'brought'?"
"Dunno! :D"
"What is the present tense of 'bought'?"
"Dunno! :D"
"Do you know how to use the dictionary? I'll teach y..."
"I KNOW I KNOW!"
"Ok then you show me."
"....... I dunno. Hehe."

And then the OTHER tutee kid, amongst all the other things she said/did (which almost made me go into a bout of fits), the other day she was trying to use long division to solve 25 divided by 2. Which looks something like this:

Somehow her answer turned out to be 12. So I asked her:
"12 ah? Then you tell me what is 12 x 2."
"*thinks for a bit* ... 24!!!!!!"
"Uh huh then ... *points at long division working*"
"*deep in thought* OHHHHHHH!!!!"
Then proceeds to change her working TO:


O_O

Numbers with decimals and those without can be added together:


7 divided by 2 = 35



HOW CAN 5 AND 6 JUST SIMPLY CANCEL OUT LIKE THAT!?"
"CAN ONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE."

Appalled.

No wonder her Mom was shocked (big understatement) when I told her she learns fast (but that was just the first session when she was still the good tutee kid, attentive and co-operative), because apparently she'd "lost patience teaching her". And did she say she'd given up too?

Anyway the reason why I'm doing this is because I had a LOT of time to kill over summer, and they've only recently rang me up after school's started. So why not since I have some time on my hands, and besides I actually thought it might be fun. Yes.