Tutoring: Helping Your Child Learn

Childhood is no picnic for many children these days, as they have to deal with social problems, extracurricular activities, and technologic distractions such as video games, computers, and cell phones. It is no wonder that some students may have trouble keeping up with their schoolwork, causing their parents to seek out a solution to their academic problems, which for many students means tutoring.

One of the signs that your child may benefit from hiring a tutor would be if he or she were becoming discouraged by a lack of results following many hours of studying. A good tutor is able to help children with this by teaching them how to study independently as well as improving their organizational and time management skills. Your child may have difficulty grasping some of the concepts taught in class because he or she has a learning style that is at odds with the instructor's teaching style. For example, he or she may be an auditory learner, a visual learner, or even a kinetic learner, which means it is necessary to use a hands-on approach in order to learn. By pairing your child with a professional tutor whose teaching style matches, you can easily solve this problem. Additionally, if your child is only having difficulty learning a specific subject, such as math or reading, you could hire a tutor to teach only that particular subject.

Although your child may not be having difficulty with schoolwork currently, hiring a tutor may help keep future problems at bay. For example, for some gifted kids, school does not offer sufficient challenge for them, in which case the extra stimulation offered by personalized tutoring may be a good idea. In addition, you probably would like to be able to help your kid with his or her lessons but find that the curriculum has changed significantly since you were young. Computers may not have been in widespread use when you were in school, so you may not be familiar with some of the programs and concepts being taught today. For example, some teachers require their students to produce book reports using programs that create slideshows for extra credit. If you were not as technologically adept as your offspring, you would not be able to provide much assistance with this.

Your family life may also benefit from hiring someone to help teach, especially with multiple children. Between transporting kids to their varied extracurricular activities and sporting activities, running errands, and preparing dinner, your afterschool time is probably very hectic and exhausting. This leaves little time to deal with the inevitable homework battles, which in turn can lead to frayed nerves and tempers. Additionally, if your children are spread out in age, you may be dealing with the homework needs of students in kindergarten, middle school, and high school, which can be daunting. With the help of a tutoring service after school, however, you could spend your evenings with your family doing fun activities and bonding.

Hiring a tutoring service may be just what your children need, whether it is to help them stay on top of their schoolwork or to work with them remedially. Call one in your area to see what they can do for your family.