Tutoring isn’t cheap, and it can be a risky investment when you don’t know the tutor. So what can you do if your child needs help, but you simply can’t find that much spare cash, or can’t justify using so much this way?
1: Acquire resources
I realise it’s stupid the first thing I recommend is spend money, but if you can spare room for some one-time expenses, buying resources can be a very valuable way to support your child. Things like textbooks and practice question books for older students or educational games and books for younger ones can give huge returns for a single-time investment.
Unfortunately I’m a little out of touch with modern educational games for children, but I do recommend the Reader Rabbit and ClueFinders series from The Learning Company. They’re designed to follow American educational outcomes, but are very helpful and very fun. They’re also long-form, meaning your child might spend a day or two playing them, rather than a minute or two. I played them in my childhood and every once in a while, I still do! They are old, but can be found on Amazon alongside other educational titles for desktop computers.
There’s also plenty of online games designed to be educational for younger students, such as these. If these aren’t helpful, just try Googling “early education games” – you’ll find something more suited to your child. Direct older students to Khan Academy for a more intense educational experience.
While I can’t vouch for them on personal experience, there’s no shortage of lists of useful educational apps for tablets and phones. This particular list has a good balance of apps designed for older and younger students, so hopefully there’s something that suits your needs.
For some older students, educational bookstores can have a wealth of things. One of the most notable in the Sydney area, complete with a handy online store is the Five Senses bookshop. Unfortunately, the prices can get pretty steep but that’s an unavoidable consequence of producing material for a niche market. Swooping on sales might be a good move if you’re lucky to find something useful.
Also keep an eye out on Gumtree and Facebook Marketplaces for students finishing any given year group attempting to sell off their textbooks and notes for a quick buck – this is really helpful in the HSC period.
There are free resources out there, such as our own. Subscribe to our newsletter to keep in touch with what’s new from us, and keep an eye out for Facebook groups or online message boards that may also being putting out good stuff free of charge.
2: Talk to Your Child About Their Learning
Ask your child to teach you what they learnt at school today. This does two things for them – first, it means they’ll recall all the things they learnt. But secondly, and more importantly, it’ll make them really break down the information in their own heads, and create a version of it they understand well enough to explain back to you. This’ll help them keep in their minds.
This gets progressively more effective as your child ages, because they learn more complicated content and need a chance to digest it. It also is content you’re less and less likely to be familiar with, meaning it’ll be more entertaining for you as well.
3: Help Where You Can
Try not to feel threatened by asking your child if they need help. Obviously, you may not be able to help them solve a 4 Unit Maths problem, but make sure they know you’re there to help if you can.
Offer to proofread essays, for example, or to help them mark their maths homework. If you do happen to have specific knowledge about what they’re studying, offer that too.
4: Talk to them About Goals
Setting goals is the best way to get your child motivated to learn, and seeing where their education can take them will help inspire them to learn actively. The trick to this is making sure they’re in charge of the conversation, as much as you can expect for their age. This is especially important for teenagers – they can’t feel like they’re being smothered as they grow.
Try not to give your opinion on your child’s goals unless they specifically ask for it. This is just because otherwise, they may feel like you’re being overbearing or trying to make decisions for them. Challenge them, by all means. Ask them if they’ve considered a certain aspect of their dream career, or if they’d really be happy with a large paycheck but no family time. But don’t make them doubt what they think – this risks damaging your relationship.
5: Help them Build Strategies
A lot of young people have issues with self-discipline and scheduling – so this is one thing you can really, really help them with. Sit down with them and help them make a study plan. Ask them how long they feel they need to be spending on each subject, and try and make a schedule that can help them achieve that without overloading them.
Also discuss ways you can deal with bad study behaviours. Do they need your help keeping to the schedule and how should you go about keeping them on it? Talk about different ways you can calmly reprimand them if they don’t stick to the study plan, and discuss fair punishments such as confiscating phones that can be implemented if behaviours don’t improve. Having this discussion in advance will help you support your child without having them feel like you’re riding them.
6 – As Much as Possible, Be There for Them
I know you already know this, but hear me out. Saying that you’re there for them and creating an environment where they know it intuitively are very different things. The most important thing is to be careful of how you treat other people in front of them. If you insult people with mental illness or criticise unmotivated people in your life, your child will learn they cannot talk to you about issues with mental health or motivation.
The other important part of being there is knowing when not be there. If your child is in a high-stress period such as exams, sometimes they may need you to just stand back. Try to not badger them, unless it was part of a plan you agreed on. Just keep them fed. Take them to the doctor if they get sick (physically or mentally). If they need it, be the shoulder to cry on. But don’t be the one that hovers over their shoulder when they already feel stressed enough.
7 – Explore Small Group Tutoring Options that Are Lower Cost and Provide More Value
From supporting thousands of students and families, we find it can sometimes be difficult for you as a parent to provide additional support to your child because they just don’t want to hear from you! We call it the “Hard to be a Prophet In Your Own Land” phenomenon.
This is where getting additional tutoring support from someone else external to your family providing support can be key to ensuring a more harmonious environment at home, and better results for your student.
But how do you make it work for your budget?
At Art of Smart, we provide low-cost, high-value small group tutoring for families on any budget, starting from as low as $30 per hour! With small group tutoring in Hornsby, small group tutoring at Castle Hill, and online anywhere across NSW, we’ve got options to support you that will align with your budget! Just give our friendly team a call on 1300 267 888 and they can walk through the options with you!
Conclusion
The take-home message from all this is to remember that the emotional support you can provide them is just as important as the academic support they can get from a tutor. Many schools do offer extra help and there’s plenty of ways to get academic assistance online. You’re in a unique position to provide emotional and structural support, so it’s best if you make as much of that advantage as you can.
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Matt Saunders is a huge nerd who first got into writing through fanfiction. He’d known science was the path for him since a young age, and after discovering a particular love of bad chemistry jokes (and chemistry too), he’s gone onto to study Forensic Chemistry at UTS. His HSC in 2014 was defined in equal parts by schoolwork and stagecraft, which left him, weirdly enough, with a love of Maths strong enough to inspire him to tutor any level, along with 7-10 Science and HSC Chemistry.
