When your child has access to the right Tutor, their grades can soar far above anything their teachers would ever have predicted or thought them capable of. With school curriculums getting harder and homes having more routine access to the internet, children are being tasked more and more with home-based study and it is a requirement to do well – for most children, that is – in the modern education system.

Because of this, many parents are turning to premium home-based study resources and tutors in order to give their children the best shot at realising their potential. There are several online tutoring sites such as Superprof which makes it easier to find tutors for kids. Using this site, all you have to do is enter the subject you need a tutor for and your location. Superprof have a community of nearly 3 million tutors, so you definitely wont struggle to find someone.

If you want to find a tutor to give your child some extra academic support, you are not alone – home tuition is becoming the new normal!

When you are looking for a tutor, though, how can you be sure that you are choosing the right one, and how can a tutor actually help your child develop academically? When taking such a big step for your child’s education, it is natural to have a lot of questions, some of which we are going to explore in this article.

Prior to committing to a tutor, it is important to assess their skills, credentials, experience, personality, and qualifications in the context of your child. It is all well and good having a tutor who went to the best university and graduated top of their class, but what good will that tutor be if he or she cannot connect and engage with your child? Picking the right tutor is a long-winded process, which takes a lot of careful thought.

#1: Benefits of Hiring a Tutor

Tutoring – either home-based or online – can help your child’s education develop further than school ever could. This sets your child up for success later in their life and gives them the right attitude towards work and further study.

When it comes to hiring a tutor, there are many benefits for your child. Firstly, it creates a unique and personable learning experience for your child, who will receive an individualized learning programme which could not be found in a normal classroom setting. Furthermore, they benefit from one-to-one attention from the tutor, who will quickly get to know your child’s learning style and adapt their teaching methodology accordingly. In a way, they are your child’s very own private teacher!

Secondly, tutoring massively improves performance. It will help prepare your child for their tests and improve on areas they are weak at. Because of this, your child’s understanding of the curriculum and wider subject area will significantly improve with the help of a tutor. Tutoring also helps improve your child’s attitude towards education and learning; with consistent tutoring and encouragement, your child may begin to enjoy school more as they understand subjects and appreciate their finer details.

Finally, hiring a tutor helps encourage your child’s self-study and self-directed learning. This is an important thing for any child of this generation to be able to do; the school climate is changing, and teachers are banking on children using the internet to learn more about their subjects and conduct some home-based learning on their own initiative. Throughout their exposure to their tutor, your child will improve their study habits and learn to study smarter, more efficiently, and better. These are skills for life and they will massively help your child when it comes to college and education outside of the compulsory classroom setting.

#2: Choosing a Tutor

Knowing that a tutor has many benefits for your child is one thing, but picking the right one is another! You should spend your time selecting potential candidates and thoroughly vetting them. Only with thorough research can you pick the right tutor for your child – the wrong type of tutor can be detrimental to your child’s learning and have the opposite impact to what you intend. The wrong tutor does not necessarily mean that a tutor is bad, either. There are many things which you should be taking into account when deciding on one.

The first thing which you need to do is check their educational background and any experience they have had. For example, a biology tutor should have a college or university degree in biology and some relevant teaching experience. Many tutors have completed professional teaching qualifications too, and these are always a bonus. A tutor’s experience should carry more weight than their educational background, however, because a biology tutor with 15 years’ experience may be better than a graduate fresh out of college!

When you have decided on some candidates based on their backgrounds, don’t be afraid to ask questions! Some questions you may want to ask a potential tutor are:

• What methods do you use in your tutoring?
• What experience do you have?
• What is your availability?
• What materials do you use?
• Have you worked with particularly challenging children?

These are just five out of the endless number of questions which you could ask, and it is important to tailor your questions according to your child and their needs.

#3: Your Role as a Parent

Hiring a tutor doesn’t mean you should be excusing yourself from your child’s education completely. For your child’s overall development and success, you need to play an active role in their home-based education and show that you care. Avoid being a “helicopter parent”, though – although it may seem strange entrusting a stranger with your child’s education, that is what you are doing whenever you drop them off at school, right?

One thing you can really do to help is to get in touch with your child’s schoolteachers and let them know that your child is being tutored. From there, you can work with your child’s teacher(s) to be the middleman between them and your child’s tutor, providing updates as to what your child is covering in school and provide any lesson plans which the teacher may provide.

Keep in touch with the tutor, too. Ask about upcoming lessons the tutor is planning for your child and liaise with the teacher to see how they fit in with your child’s school-based education. Also, find out about any tests your child will be doing at school so that your tutor can prepare for them. The whole point of hiring a tutor is to improve your child’s grades, and the best way to do this is having your tutor prepare your child for specific tests!

Although this may be a lot of information for you to take in, hiring a tutor is a huge step to take towards bettering your child’s education and it is not a decision which should be taken lightly or easily, without any thought. By spending time tracking down the right tutor for your child and then actively working with both teacher and tutor to develop an actionable and valuable lesson plan, your child will be well on their way to excelling in a subject area with which they may once have struggled greatly. With more families relying on tutors now than ever before, it is a great time to get on board in the furtherance of your child’s education!