Hiring a Tutor for Your Child - Top 4 Considerations

Finding a tutor for your child is just as difficult as finding a nanny or choosing a school teacher. Tutors not only serve the role of teaching, but they should also be role models for children, especially if they meet on a regular basis.

The first thing you should keep in mind is that not every respectful tutor is suitable for your child, and also since children are very different from one another, the same tutor won’t meet every child’s needs with best results. In order to choose the right tutor for your children, you need to do a bit of research on your own. Here are some tips for you to begin with.

Have your child’s preferences in mind

Even though all parents think they know what their child needs, you should also keep in mind that forcing your child into something he or she dislikes is not going to end up well. Before settling for a specific tutor, you should evaluate the first couple of classes to see how your child’s taking it. You should focus on early signs of bad communication, lousy knowledge transfer and explanatory gaps.

Since interaction is the key to successful tutoring, keep in mind that your child has to be responsive in order to get the most benefits from tutoring. If the child doesn’t like the teacher, there’s not going to be much progress. The best tutor for your child in most cases won’t be the best rated one, but the one your child likes most.

Aim for the weak spots

A lot of parents think school is not giving their kids enough knowledge, so they spend on a global level hundreds of billions of dollars on private tutoring in order to help their kids get the best education. However, this can often lead to many mistakes. For instance, if your kids just continue their schoolwork after they come home from school every day, they won’t have time to do any other extracurricular activities or even make friends.

Before you engage a tutor for every class there is, try focusing your attention on the missing pieces of knowledge your child has. Most of the time, children will tell you on their own if they are having trouble catching up with something in school. So, if your child is having trouble with English, you shouldn’t bother looking for tutors for other subjects. You can hire a reliable English tutor who will monitor your child’s progress and give you feedback. This way, you can be sure that your children are getting the knowledge they need, but without being overwhelmed with home tutoring.

Check the references

Tutors can be found worldwide via different mediums, and there are many unqualified tutors registered. If you want the best for you kids, you should always ask a lot of questions before agreeing to give someone the responsibility of tutoring your child (and also your money). Not only does the tutor need to be academically qualified, but he or she also needs to be an appropriate character for your children. You can consult Angie’s list for reviews of different tutors and their character traits.

Keep in mind that even though internet tutors are becoming highly popular worldwide, human face-to-face interaction is still showing better results. It seems that the market has not yet fully adapted to the online tutoring experience, and the necessity of human contact continues to be a strong predictor of tutoring success. Thus, you should look for tutors that live close by and those who are able to fully support your child by being physically present when tutoring.

Good connection is the key

As we’ve already underlined the importance of human communication in the tutoring process, it’s also fair to point out that not every form of communication leads to a good connection. Some tutors are more easy-going and can talk their way into convincing you that your child is doing great, while on the other hand, there are no results. Some children might be too introverted to say that they don’t like their tutor, which is another reason why you should pay careful attention to their relationship.

Don’t forget that your parenting job is not done once you’ve found a good tutor. You need to practice with your child after the tutor’s class because practicing will help them develop their knowledge further. Teach your kids to make more effort when they seem lost and hopeless, and also how to look for help when they can’t do something on their own. Collaboration is another great thing to be learned from the tutoring experience.