Its school time. Parents are delighted to see the kids back in school. Kids are excited to a new year, class, teacher and friends. Times are tough and costs of books and uniform in Ireland have left us already looking forward to the next payday. However it is important to take some time to be actively involved with our kids. Studies have shown that parents who are involved in their child’s education have a positive impact and this is reflected in their grades, attendance, attitudes and behaviour.

Help your child make homework a habit, schedule a set time each day for homework.  Find out what works best for your child and use that to encourage them. Encourage research on the internet or using the library to help with homework .Do not do the assignments for them.

Develop a positive line of communication with your child’s teacher.  Teachers are usually very willing and excited to work with an involved parent to help the child’s overall success in school.  Whether its school journals, an appointment with the school or an e-mail correspondence, make sure your teacher knows you are open for suggestions as to how to assist in the study process.   

Help your child develop a method of keeping track of homework.  This can be difficult for some students but a well planned  but fun schedule set to mark off assignments as they are completed helps develop a productive method for accomplishing tasks later in life. This is nice way for the kid to see what they have accomplished and help plan ahead for future tasks.  Last but not least praise the kid and YOURSELF (we tend to forget us) for a job well done.

Summer Holidays 2010 – What can you do to keep your children motivated during the summer?

In today’s society, many children are finding it difficult to cope with their class work and the competitive and ever changing school curriculum hence the need for extra coaching.

Many parents would look for private tutors during the holidays because it would:

• be a bit more relaxing for the child, can learn at their own pace,
• Give parents a chance to study, measure and structure their child’s performance without the pressures found in the classroom.
• Make it fun and enjoyable for the kids.
• Keeps them busy rather than have them on the computer or games all day. Talking of games, the use of braining training or interactive games have being found to be beneficial to kids and could help stimulate their brain function.
• One to one, so more attention is paid to the child and allows for recognition of weak points or issues that might not be discovered in school.

The result of holiday tutoring is immensely beneficial for the future of the child and is a step in the right the direction when we see the benefits it offers e.g.

• Self confidence and positive attitude towards school work when back in school.
• Learn different approaches to solving analytical problems and improves communication among their peers and teachers. Just found out one of my kids can only learn to play the piano by listening and watching others play than reading the music sheet. So I’ve had to switch from a music school to finding a tutor who can play to her for now.

Most of all the benefits can be rewarding for us parents – happier children, less worrying calls from school and a time to put our feet up and give you a well deserved pat on the back.

With Private tutors and institutions becoming more available, you have a better chance at finding a tutor that would suit your child and most importantly, you are in control of what you want from the tutor as well. Happy holidays everyone!

Due to the increase in class sizes, budgets cuts and lack of sufficient teachers, parents are now employing home tutors or paying for extra classes for their kids for help with their homework, subjects troubling them or even to learn subjects that might not even be offered in  school.

Most Parents are faced with the difficult task of choosing a tutor for their kids and have many factors to consider when faced with this dilemma. These include cost, certification of tutor; the specific need required e.g. one to one or group setting etc. can be in tutors home, school or child’s home.

There are different types of tutors available to choose from and I would just mention a few based on people general experiences. Please note that these might not be the case for everyone and would advice for parents to do their research on what suits them best.

• Private tutor certified in education: This would normally be the first choice for most parents because of the qualifications in the specific subject area and certification with an approved body for easy verification. However you’ll be paying top Euros for a tutor in this group. The more qualified the higher the pay. The teacher in the school can be sought for extra lessons however one also has to consider after a whole day at school would the child want to see your teacher after school again. Would be hard for those who already have issues in school, Lang problems and might want someone else outside the setting they are used to.
• A family friend or neighbour: Most tutors here could be graduates fresh out of school looking for jobs, retired teachers with loads of experience or even tutors from the first groups who just happens to live down your street. This would normally be a more informal arrangement and sometimes word of mouth or reference from friends and family would be key factor in your decision in taking up tuition with the tutor. Again, cost depends on qualifications, recommendations, and settings e.g. group work or one-to one. One major issue though tutor may lack experience in teaching higher level skills or skills might not be up to date with new methods of teaching.
• Tutoring centres: Would hire qualified tutors but would be given a  timeline to the type of tuition they would want to give and parents have to pay upfront for lessons before they are taken. Fees can be very expensive for families. You also find that kids enjoy going there if their friends are there or they know someone there. It can be very formal and therefore a replica of the school environment. However they are setup to continually assess deficit areas in the child’s learning accompanied by a detailed assessment report.
• Community groups: Most are funded by government and are run by volunteers which could be a mixture of qualified and non qualified tutors who are in turn seeking training of some sorts from these centres themselves. This might not be top of the list for specific learning but would serve for generalised form of learning. Fees are often very cheap and within the range for most families. Lots of play and fun skills would score high for kids with lots of community programs being set up and basic learning skills for adults looking to do something different or need the skill for a new job.

The different groups of tutors mentioned above are just some example of what is available to parents out there. With the fast evolving world of technology, we now have online learning in the comfort of your home in the form of whiteboard, Skype etc this will be discussed in another entry. Feel free to add anything else or something new to the scene.

Happy new year to everyone.  So much as happened in the last few months Budget cuts, job loss, Mother nature strikes with the “Big” freeze, no water due to frozen pipes, kids running wild on the stairway – happy that there is no school but frustrated because they want to go to school and see their friends. For me it was buy, buy and buy because they would want to snack every 2 mins.

Like everyone the budget cut was the big deal – wondering what to sacrifice to even out cost of living to a manageable level. However I worry about the next school year when we would buy new books and uniforms for our kids. Will we be able to afford these items? Just thinking!!!

Anyway, as a tutor and a parent, I recognize how much there is to share about the tutoring experience and how to make the best of it! Please remember that this blog is intended to share best practices and discussions on educating the others. I look forward to some interesting discussions and also references to educational resources. I stumbled unto some free ones for my kids and they loved it.

Search4tutors.ie is a web service connecting tutors, students and parents, officially launched in Ireland. We are offering free registration to tutors till the 30th of October. The service is free for parents and students to look or place ads for tutors. Feel free to search around and give us your feedback or suggestions.  Hope to see you come back very often and don’t forget to bring your friends.

Welcome to Search4tutors’s blog. This was created for the many people like me who are finding it hard to deal with the current situation in the market right now – oversized classrooms, budget cuts, teacher cuts in Ireland. I just wonder what happens to our Children who are supposed to be prepared to lead us tomorrow. Well! I for one will do my own 50% to ensure that my kids get the basics while we continue to struggle and fight for better resources for our kids.  Talking of fighting parents with special needs need three times the energy just to get what they are supposed to be entitled to. Believe me i know I’m also one of them.

During my quest for a better education, I employed tutors and also trained to be one so to save cost. A lot of hard work, but when you see the results you smile and pat yourself on the back. One of my biggest obstacles I faced was finding the right tutors or even having a choice of tutors to employ. So I decided to blog about it and possibly get tutors and parents to join me in my quest to bridge the gap between us and also make life a bit easier for us.  Feel free to comment or post articles relating to this subject. I would be very interested in hearing what other parents did or faced for their kids. outside school