Toot Lorain Library for free homework tutors

LORAIN — Homework is a task in which many brains make light work.

Volunteers not intimidated by after-hours schoolwork instruct students in the Homework Help Center at the Lorain Public Library, 351 W. Sixth St. The tutors meet on Mondays and Tuesdays at the library for the free help sessions.

“It’s good to give them positive after-school experiences at the library that keep them coming back to the library,” said Frances Johnson, librarian supervisor of outreach. “I think we’re raising grades, I really do.”

The program caters to youths in grades kindergarten to eight, but they don’t turn away occasional high school or GED students who show up. The center is stocked with school supplies, encyclopedias and computers, and thousands of other volumes are just a few steps away.

The center started in 2007 and soon attracted Betty Pekare, a retired educator who also worked as a juvenile probation officer and social worker, and Charlene Connors, a former special education teacher.

“After moving there, I really wanted to give something back to the community because I live in a very wonderful place,” said Connors, who moved to Lorain from Bay Village in 2006. “I just felt the need to give back.”

They are part of a corps of six volunteers who staff the center regularly.

The volunteers won’t finish as- signments for students, but they get creative to supplement the lessons the youths learn in school.

Games help, and Pekare plays “Spill and Spell” in which the players score points by making words with letters printed on dice.

“The ones that we have the most trouble with are Qs, Xs and Zs,” Pekare said. “It is a lot of fun.”

Flashcards may be a throwback to pre-digital classrooms, but they also help students, the tutors said. Students also practice with exercises such as matching numbers on paper to numbers of actual pennies.

“They seem to really enjoy it,” Connors said. “We have word games and number games to do things in a fun way, but they’re still learning.”

Learning fractions, multiplica- tion and long division are the toughest subject for some of the students.

Other assignments turn into special challenges. The tutors recalled helping one student track down information to write about how a minor artist used colors.

“It was a much more extensive research report than we’re used to working with,” Connors said. “You really have to be kind of flexible. We never really know what the homework will be or what the children’s needs are. It’s fun.”

“I agree,” Pekare said. “Otherwise we would not have been here for the last five years.”

For more information, call the Outreach Services Department at (440) 244-1192 or 1-800-322-READ, ext. 245 or visit www.lorain.lib.oh. us/.