What should you do in a private class with a kid?

Blogging: it's so easy and is not just "the usual stuff..."

You've got a private class with a 13-year-old girl, who's getting on fine in English at school, but whose Mum wants her to be really good at English, and can afford to pay for it. What do you do with her for three hours a week...?

The question came from Liza on our post-CELTA course support forum and Liza was looking for "another book we could use for the classes that covers all the usual stuff, reading, grammar etc" and she wanted "to make the classes a bit more exciting and interactive".

Now I actually happen to be myself the father of a 13-year-old girl, who's fascinating to listen to on what makes classes "a bit more exciting" (or otherwise!) and I can't help thinking that another book to cover "all the usual stuff" isn't going to have the desired effect.

I'd get the kid to blog.

I'd have her blog on whatever subject/s interest her: whatever she's into, music or dance or xtreme skateboarding, I'd get her to write about it on a blog. I'd get her to find stuff on the Internet on it; get her to talk to you about it; provide the language she needed to say what she can't yet say; and get her to write about it on a blog... which I'd make really private.

And in that way, do the reading and the grammar, and lots more besides...

It's so easy to set up a blog [video] and it's not just the usual stuff, which -- chances are -- she's probably already bored with from school...