Tips On Choosing The Right Tutor For Your Child

Are you thinking about getting a little extra help for your child in math? Well, you’re in good company. Nowadays, parents seem to be using private tutors more and more to help their kids perform their best in school.

There are a lot of tutors out there, and choosing the right tutor is important to make sure your child has the most rewarding experience possible.

Here’s a partial list of some ways you might find a tutor:

• Get referrals from friends
  
• Public libraries
  
• Teachers
  
• Community organizations such as church organizations or home school groups
  
• Internet
• Yellow pages

Once you’ve got names of a few tutors in your area, there are several things you can do to help get a good tutor for your child.

1) Talk with their teacher. Believe it or not, many parents skip this very important step. Get as much insight as you can into your child‘s situation by asking their teacher some key questions. This will help quite a bit when making a decision as to the best tutor for the job.

Questions to Ask your child’s teacher:

• What does my child need to focus on specifically?
• Does my child need specific skills they didn't master in previous years?
• If so what are they?

2) Interview the tutor. You can find out a lot about the tutor over the phone. Questions to ask over the phone should include:

• How long have they been tutoring / teaching?
  
• What grade levels are they most comfortable tutoring?
  
• Are they certified to teach in their subject areas?
  

Teachers who are not certified may still be very good tutors. There are many teachers who have years of experience teaching math on a college level and hold a degree, but are not certified to teach elementary, middle, or high school.

Usually a real good indicator of a quality tutor is years of experience. You may feel more comfortable with a tutor that has at least five years experience working with students at your child’s grade level.

What’s probably most important is a tutor that is passionate about their subject who really enjoys working with kids and seeing them learn. Usually when you have that combination, you’ve found a tutor that will be very beneficial for your child‘s education.

3) Check References. Most tutors if they have been tutoring for even a short amount of time will have a track record. Experienced tutors expect to provide references when taking on new students. And great tutors are more than happy to provide them.

Usually parents are pretty honest when it comes to a recommendation about a person that has dealt with their child. You should ask the parent specific questions:

• Did the tutor show up in timely manner?
  
• What was your overall view of the tutoring experience for your child?
  
• Do you feel like your child benefited by the tutoring?
  
• Are you still using the tutor?
  
• If not still using the tutor, would you hire the same tutor again?
  
• How many days a week did the tutor work with your child?
  

4) Observe the tutor and your child working together. You don’t necessarily have to be sitting at the same table with your child and the tutor. This would be a little bit uncomfortable for the tutor, and maybe for your child. That being said:

• You do want to be at a reasonable distance away even in the same room so you can get a feel of the tutor’s teaching style and teaching skills.
• You also want to try to get a general sense of how the tutor is interacting with your child.

As a parent you will definitely need to feel comfortable with this particular tutor working one-on-one with your child.

5) Ask your Child's Opinion. Of course you will make the ultimate decision, but it will help you if you get an idea of what your child thinks of the tutor. You have to of course take into consideration your child’s age. Normally it will take more than the first meeting for your child to feel comfortable with a tutor. But you want to have a tutor that your child likes.

Your child may give you some of the best advice about this prospective tutor. After they have had about an hour of doing some tutoring and becoming acquainted, they may have a pretty good feel of the tutor.



Coming: “How To Get The Most Out Of Tutoring