Hello again everyone. Hope 2018 has been good for you and your family so far.

If you caught my last post, on how to make this the best year for your child, you know that many parents often seek me out to tutor their son or daughter around the beginning of the year. Also… before exams, not to mention after a stressful parent teacher meeting.

However, seeking out tutoring as a reaction to something is not always the best time to start it. Cramming for exams, too, is not recommended, though I know from my own experience that sometimes it really can make the difference between a pass and a fail.

So, when, if ever, is the best time for a parent to consider private tutoring for their child?

Making Goals

Again, referring to my previous post, making goals for your child’s education, with your child’s involvement should be the first step in any parent’s game plan. This will make things very clear in terms of where your child is now, educationally, and where he or she should be in order to realise their goals.

This is where tutoring can help.

Road Map

One of the many benefits tutoring can provide is a clear road map of how to get where you need to be as a student. The first thing a tutor will, or should, do is assess the student to see where his or her strengths, weaknesses and gaps lie. Then they should have a chat with both of you and discuss how they can help your child.

Custom Help

Many students have needs that are not taken care of in large classrooms. Gaps in Maths and English are especially commonly overlooked. Sometimes children need to be taught what they need in a way that they can access it. Private tutoring, whether one-on-one or in a small group, gives students customised help for their individual requirements.

Less Distractions

A classroom filled with friends or, even more importantly, those who are not friendly, can make it difficult for your child to focus or get up the courage to ask questions. Tutoring can remove these undesirable elements from the learning space, allowing your child to both learn more and seek to learn more, which is after all what education should be all about.

Explicit Fundamentals

One of the things I most commonly see with students is that they have never been explicitly taught the fundamentals of the concepts they are dealing with. Whether this is about multiplication or grammar, schools tend to want to complete the curriculum, which does not always allow for a deep understanding of what they are doing and why.

Increased Confidence

One of the most important, yet under-rated, outcomes of good tutoring is that it allows students to become relaxed and confident when it comes to school, studies and examinations. This confidence spreads across all aspects of a young person’s life. It reduces stress, increases energy and enthusiasm and helps students make better decisions, both in and out of the classroom. Last, but never least, it eases tensions at home.

Testing Skills

While teaching to a test is not a good idea, it is always important to teach students how to approach tests. Doing well in tests is just another skill, like writing a good composition or proving a theorem. A tutor with a lot of experience will be able to give students pointers on how to ace their exams and tests, while also dealing with text anxiety, which is a very common problem.

Levelling the playing field

One of the main reasons tutoring can help your child is to ensure that they are on the same level as everyone else who is doing well in school. Some students work well within a school system, others get help at home and some students do a lot of self-studying outside of school. If your child does not fall into one of these categories, it means they need a little more help to make sure they are putting their best foot forward in this competitive day and age.

There are many more reasons tutoring can help your child. However, it is up to you and your son and daughter to sit down and plan their educational path out first. This will allow you to see if tutoring is a good option to try. It is also essential that the tutor you choose should be a match to your child’s needs and provide a safe yet challenging environment for them to flourish.