<p>$15 to come to me! In fact, since my D graduated and used to bring my son-who-needs-a-tutor home, I’im thinking it would be great to have someone bring him home AND tutor him… you wouldn’t to be in N.Cal, would you?</p>
<p>We live in a small town in the midwest and my dd gets $20/hr.</p>
<p>Powerbomb - I would start with word of mouth,you could also put up a flyer at your local library. You should only go to people’s house that you know, otherwise tutor at some neutral place - town’s library or school. You just can’t be too careful.</p>
<p>haha. Very helpful. Thank you!! Oldfort, Yea, I was thinking of the Central Library or a nearby bookstore…I don’t think there will be a lot of parents who are willing to drop off their kids at a stranger’s house.</p>
<p>No, I am saying that you shouldn’t go to people’s house you don’t know.</p>
<p>that too :-p</p>
<p>My S used to give a free first 30 minute lesson. That gave him experience, got his feet wet with it, and almost always led to follow-ups because the first lesson went okay. Most important at that age is that the kid feel comfortable enough around you because you are pleasant and encouraging all along as he works. No scowls, obviously. Just ask them for the first lesson to bring you some papers from last year’s schoolwork, and on-the-spot figure out where the kid had trouble, make up some few similar problems and teach away until he gets that skill to improve. Show the parents the papers you worked on during the 30 minutes so they see some evidence of progress. Then ask them if they want to go ahead and schedule 3 paid lessons in a row. Most kids can handle a one-hour lesson at most. </p>
<p>Whether to attempt to babysit while you tutor, it depends on the ages of the children. If you are trying to babysit a 4-year-old you can only do it if he’s parked in front of a TV, but he might start to make requests and grab attention from you, so you lose the tutoring. That takes a lot of experience to manage. In general, I’d say stick to one thing at a time. Or you could tell a parent you’d try it out one time and see how it goes, but that you hope the tutoring takes priority. They should let you have the little one watch TV during the tutoring time. You’re not Mary Poppins, after all! I’d say: don’t even try to handle 2 kids if one of them is ages 1-3. Little ones are unpredictable, and you don’t want them to get into an unsafe situation while your attention is on the big kid’s lesson. OTOH, if you’re tutoring a 10-year-old and the other kid is 8, that could be manageable if the 8 year old is a tractable, regular little kid.</p>
<p>Really, I’d stick to tutoring. Babysitting means watching kids, and you can’t watch while you’re earnestly teaching someone at a kitchen table.</p>
<p>Sometimes parents are looking for some kind of super-nanny (Mary Poppins) but you’re just a h.s. kid, so I’d say stick to the tutoring, or do only babysitting if you enjoy that, but at different times and for different payscales.</p>
<p>Craigslist is useful but it just takes some experience fielding calls. You could think or write out little answers to predictable questions. Best all-around statement is something like, “I believe I could help your child make progress in that subject. Would you like to schedule a free first lesson to see what you think?”</p>
<p>Ask the parent to be home for the first lesson, but sit in a different room where they can hear but not be seen. (as all adults should be:) Ask them to eavesdrop but not to interrupt for the 30 minutes, so you can keep the kid’s attention and earn respect from the kid and the parent.</p>
<p>I think once you get your first chance to actually DO this for 30 minutes, a lot of your questions will be answered. You’ll see that you can do it. A lot of tutoring is watching over as a kid works problems, to see where he/she is stuck. When they hit the stuck place, you try out a bunch of ways to get them unstuck. Then immediately make up some simple, similar problems with the same kind of bug and let them do 5 of them so they practice being unstuck. </p>
<p>This is sophisticated, but if you can, notice what helps them most: doing a little drawing for them, giving them a model as you work it slowly, using symbols on paper, using small objects such as paperclips and THEN use numbers on paper, so you get a feel for whether they listen or look more at the explanation (that’s their learning style). Whatever works, keep using that on them. They’ll really learn a new skill. Celebrate that they figured it out (high fives). Then move on.</p>