Most of the lessons I teach are lessons to children whose parents do not speak Dutch or not very well, who attend Dutch schools. My lessons are inspired by what I as a native speaker do to give my own children extra support. But the focus is just a bit extra on vocabulary.

That means: reading a lot together and playing educational games.

Tutoring to group 1 / 2

It is not uncommon for an international child to start ‘basisschool’ without knowledge of the Dutch language. Some of the schools in the neighbourhood have a special program to guide these children.

When a child starts school, it’s supposed to be able to dress itself, go to the toilet independently, and be able to wait for it’s turn. 

For the Dutch children, when they enter group 1, they’re expected to be able to make short sentences and ask basic questions in Dutch. The passive word-knowledge would be a vocabulary of 4000 words, the active word-knowledge: 2000 words. For example they don’t have to be able to use the names of the shapes and colors, but they have to be familiar with the words for them.

The precise content of the lessons in group 1/ 2 is dependent on the individual child. The basis is reading and games.
For the reading I might read to them, but mostly in an interactive way:  see for example the books of Hervé Tullet, or we repeat books and the second time I ask them to tell me the story.  Also we can read ‘samenleesboeken’ (books to read together with 5-yo’s.)
The games I bring are very diverse. I can bring some kind of quiz cards, we can do shapes- and forms games. We do exercises with mini loco. Also I like story telling games: using books or a game with dice called rory story cubes.

For children in group 1 and 2 I reccomend 40-minute lessons.

In group 2 we might already start with learning to read, if the child is ready and has enough motivation for this.

Tutoring to children at Dutch schools, group 3 and up

Group 3 is an exciting year. While they have already learned 15 letters in group 2, they are now really learning to read! By December they are able to read small stories independently.

All schools in Buitenveldert work with the method called Veilig leren lezen. This method is made of 12 ‘kernen’: in every kern they learn some new letters, and will practice reading these letters in combination with the letters they have already learned. A small number of children can already read when they start group 3. In this case, they will also use ‘Veilig leren lezen’, but then they will use a different version called the 'sun' version.

In group 4, they continue with what they learned in group 3: they have to be able to read a bit faster. They start practicing reading comprehension.
In group 5, the more complex words are learned, also words that originate from other languages and are for that reason more difficult to write.
In higher classes, reading comprehension of course keeps being very important. Children have to be able to understand a lot: for this a growing vocabulary is needed. I’m here to help with that.

My lessons are complementary to what they learn in school.

For example, a typical class for a child in group 4 can consist of:

• Reading: often from a ‘theater reading book’
• Educational games, such as squla quiz cards and all types of card games with which you have to make sentences, form words, etc.
• Spelling exercises, in a playful way. For this I often use ‘maxi loco’ (game like mini loco but with more tiles)  But I also give them for example the challenge to write as many words as possible that start with the letter ‘v’ using the lovely book alfabet by Charlotte Dematons.
• Building up vocabulary: most children I teach work with a special vocabulary notebook. Sometimes we read together about a difficult subject and discuss the new words that’re in there. The vocabulary focus is throughout the whole lesson.

Even though we do "fun" things, the lessons are serious. I keep the goals of the schools in mind.

Dutch language learning for newcomers (children) and children in international schools

These lessons are tailor-made, depending on the language level of the individual child.
With some children I use the method ‘hotel hallo’, this is a method for building up vocabulary.  Always I add a lot of games to these lessons. 

Dutch conversation lessons for adults

In the lessons for adults the focus is on actual language use and feeling comfortable speaking Dutch.
Most of my adult students I see only once a week: so self-study and the use of language outside of class are necessary.  That's why we will also talk about how to practice the Dutch language outside of my lesson.

Adults I ask to buy this dictionary: ‘Van Dale pocketwoordenboek Nederlands als tweede taal’

Book club for adults

The book club I started with the idea that parents who already have a high level of language proficiency need an incentive to develop further. Reading together is more motivating than reading alone.

The book clubs meet once every two weeks. Before each meeting, you are asked to prepare by reading a piece and doing an assignment about what you have read. We spend some of our time discussing the book. The rest of the time we do a fun exercise. For example, analyzing a picture book, or a fun vocabulary game.

In 2023/ 2024 there won't be a book club

Middelbare school coaching

Children who have attended classes with me for a longer period of time and start attending middelbare school can benefit from some extra support too. Middelbare school coaching consists of planning homework together and practicing study skills.

Note on the presence of family-members, and siblings taking lessons together

When one family member is taking classes with me, it is sometimes nice and also useful when a family member joins. I always welcome that. If you let me know in advance that a family member is joining, I take this into account when preparing for the lesson. 

It is possible for siblings to have their class with me together on a regular basis. I do have experienced though that mostly it’s best that they have half an hour together + half an hour per sibling on an individual basis.