Experience with testing my cousin

Last weekend for my SED 365 class I administered a diagnostic math test to my younger cousin who is in 7^th grade.  He seemed to have difficulties with regrouping, fractions, long division, multiplication, and decimals.  When I spoke with my aunt after about the difficulties I notice and made some suggestions as to what he needed to work on she said, “Well you can teach him”.  It appeared that she did not want to be actively involved with his learning.  In my house my parents were always very involved in my homework and education.  They always were playing board games, cards, and other games with me to improve any skills I was struggling with.  It seems to me that my cousins parents don’t want to spend time helping him, and would much rather have him tutored outside the home.  It is upsetting to me to see him struggle when I feel that with a little extra assistance at home he could benefit.  Although tutoring can be helpful and in many cases necessary, it can only occur for a certain amount of hours per week and that in addition it is very important for parents to provide an environment full of learning experiences to help their child grow academically.  By playing and doing interactive activities with your child at home you have the opportunity to engage them in learning without them even knowing it because they are having so much fun.         

  

Babysitting Related to Piaget's Sensorimotor Stage

     Tonight I babysat my seven- month- old nephew Sebastian.  I could clearly see that he is working his way through Piaget's first stage of  cognitive development, sensorimotor.  As he loves to put toys in his mouth and make many different noises.  Also, I noticed that what ever was within his reach and in front of him was what he was focused on.  He was also very intrigued by the television and any noises around him.  He was very talkative even though he was speaking his own language and wanted you to pay attention to him, it was like he was trying to communicate.  He appeared to be fascinated by his own sounds as well.