Moving Along Slowly

Today seemed unproductive. I know the weeks left are limited and I want to cover as much as possible with Elodia before our tutoring sessions are over. Elodia was late which is not like her. I called her after fifteen minutes and she said she was on her way, explaining there was no parking. She seemed a bit frazzled when she sat down at the table I had snagged for us in the crowded, noisy library. I asked if her grandson had been born yet, and she said he hadn't, but that the doctors said tomorrow was the day. She'd brought all her homework, including what she had forgotten last week. I had her finish the contractions activity that we'd begun last week, while I looked over her homework pages. She had answered most the questions in the activities correctly and most of her errors were with verb tenses. We went over her mistakes and I made her explain why she thought she'd made them, which made her further think about the questions and grammar. We went over the rest of the contractions activity, which she did well on and moved on to talking about present tense verbs. We weren't far into the lesson when Elodia started coughing badly and had to leave to get water. When she returned she explained that her allergies had been really bad lately and she had not been feeling well. She was having trouble with the worksheet and I asked if she ever spoke English at home. She said she only spoke Spanish so her children wouldn't forget it, as they speak English all day at school. I told her that was good, but that she should speak to them in English every so often like over dinner or something. I said it was just as important for her to practice English as it was for them to practice Spanish. She was struggling with the spelling of "likes" when she had to leave again because of coughing. I felt bad for her because she clearly didn't feel well and she was still worried about her daughter and her soon-to-be grandson's birth. She was gone for a while and it was almost time to go, so I did the first two activities so she could use those as a guide when doing the rest for homework. She returned and I told her to study the packet and finish the activities and we'd go over past tense verbs next week. I hope she feels better next week. She was sick a few weeks ago, so I hope she does not get that again. Anyway, I know the timing was not my fault, but I still wish this session had been longer. I really want to utilize the next two weeks and accomplish a lot.