Sometimes Great

Things Come in

Small Packages

His name is Emmanuel,

and he is a force to be

reckoned with.

He is a cherubic,

bespectacled five-year old

darling who came to visit

me in my little tutoring

room this past spring.

He was just finishing his

first grade year, but his

father was told by the

teacher and the school

district that Emmanuel

was not ready to advance

to first grade.

His wise father became

Emmanuel ’s advocate, and

convinced the district to

retest his son one more

time before the final

decision to retain him in

kindergarten.

His papa could not accept

that decision. He knew his

son, and he knew what I

would soon come to learn.

Our little Emmanuel was

not only bright, but inside

that tiny frame was the

bulldog determination of a

never-give-up hard worker.

That is how Emmanuel

came to work with me for

several hours per week this

past summer.

And work we did! He

memorized sight words,

segmented phonemes, read

countless nonsense words,

beat me over and over at

the Train Phonics Game,

and learned the names of

geometric shapes.

I still smile when I think

of that little voice

flawlessly saying difficult

terms like “rectangular

prism.”

It was a challenge getting

him to be able to

pronounce the “th” sound

without those teeth, but he

practiced and practiced

until he got it right. I

can still see that

determined little face

working to form the words.

When we first began

working together,

Emmanuel had two teeth

missing.

Small but mighty,

Emmanuel did anything

and everything I asked

him to do, without a

whimper or complaint, as

we vetted him for the retest

mid-July.

As the day of retest came,

I prayed and waited to

hear if he had passed.

When his dad arrived at

our center, he was all

smiled as he proudly

showed me the

congratulatory email on

his phone.

There were high-fives all

over our lobby, and we

took Emmanuel ’s photo

with both thumbs up, to

put on our bulletin board

to celebrate his victory.

If one strolls through our

center during a busy day,

one might hear

Shakespeare, calculus, or

physics concepts wafting

through the air.

At Oxford Tutoring, we are

in the business of helping

all of our students achieve

their individual goals.

But we take every bit as

much pride in the successes

of a kindergartner like

Emmanuel.

We take pride in our high

school students who score

high on their SAT’s and

go onto Ivy League

schools.

At Oxford Tutoring, there

are no small victories.

Oxfordtutoring.com

(949) 681-0388

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