Your grade-school child is struggling in school and the teacher has suggested you hire a tutor. Instead, consider tutoring your child yourself. This article gives parents ideas on what steps to take to help their child overcome the trouble areas they are experiencing in school.

Be Your Child’s Tutor
By
Deanna Lynn Sletten

Your grade-school child is struggling in school and the teacher has suggested you hire a tutor. While a tutor can be an enlightening experience, having one can also be expensive and the time a tutor spends with your child is limited. Instead, consider tutoring your child yourself with the subjects he is having difficulty with in school.

Assess the problem areas

Begin by assessing the areas and subjects your child is having difficulty with. Is your child struggling with reading or math concepts? Is he working too slowly and unable to complete tasks? Are his comprehension skills good but organizational skills in need of work? Analyze what some of the trouble areas are so you can set up a plan on how to help your child succeed.

Talk to his teacher

Set up a meeting with your child’s teacher to get her view on what your child’s strengths and weaknesses are in academics. Maybe your child is distracted easily and cannot concentrate in class. Or your child may learn better by interacting and touching rather than reading long chapters. Getting a second opinion will help lead you in the right direction to help your child.

Also, for specific subjects your child is having trouble with, ask the teacher for a copy of the curriculum so you can help supplement it at home. Ask for copies of any worksheets or workbooks that the teacher has that may help you work with your child. It might be your child only needs a little extra work in these areas to master them.

Get materials

Depending upon the subject your child is struggling with, purchase or borrow learning tools such as workbooks, flashcards, and games. You can buy these at almost any bookstore or borrow them from the school or local library. Work together with your child using these materials to help build on the skills he already knows and to learn new ones.

Organize your time together

Put aside time each day to help your child with his current homework on the problem subjects and to work with him on additional materials to help supplement what he is learning. Start with only a few concepts and build on those as the days and weeks go by. Don’t overwhelm your child with too much extra work or concepts because this will only frustrate him. Learning a little extra each day will help to build on what he is doing in school so he can catch up with the other children.

If organization or stress over timed tests are your child’s big roadblocks try teaching your child better ways to organize his time or relaxation techniques for stress. Sometimes a perfectly good student can lapse because of one of these issues, so it’s important to teach them the skills they need to conquer these problems.

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