A lot of you know me from the board here, and most of you know I work as a private tutor.
I see a lot of people talking about taking their child for intensive summer programs.
It occurred to me that I could offer an intensive summer one-to-one tutoring session:
I have the office in my house (well, will have when the workers finish putting the walls back in this week). I could show the parents how to continue working with their child after they go home, so there would be continuity and hopefully retention. I live in one of the most beautiful regions of the world, a tourist area anyway, and there would be lots of things for the families to do after the tutoring so they could combine this with a family holiday.
Problems I foresee:
People would have to take me on faith and pay me at least a reasonable amount in advance. In hourly tutoring I find that a lot of people lose momentum, when they find that work is involved and it isn’t all fun and games. What could I do about people who sign up and then cancel at the last minute, and those who start and then quit? How much non-refundable deposit? What sort of guarantees can I send people to know that I’m not fly-by-night either?
If I let people stay in a spare room on a B&B basis, when this is included with the tutoring work would that be too much intense contact and lead to too much friction? Especially since the second bathroom isn’t in yet.
Comments and suggestions welcome.
Re: a proposal, and request for thoughts
My son went to a PG intensive in Orlando. It was three or 4 hours in the morning (it was several years ago and my memory is failing) with about an hour of homework assigned for the afternoon. It was five days long. We prepaid half the cost and the other half was due before any therapy began on Monday.
I think the intensive idea is a good one but I would nix the B & B idea. My son was down right grumpy afterwards and needed to get away. He spent the afternoons mostly at the hotel pool, although he did go canoeing one afternoon and to a park one other. I would gather a list of different priced accomodations that are near by instead.
Beth
Re: a proposal, and request for thoughts
Beth- did your son find the PG intensive sessions productive and useful in remediating his reading difficulties? We are scheduled to take our 7 year old there this summer for the 1 week intensive session also and was wondering how helpful it was.
Re: a proposal, and request for thoughts
Well, it started my son off on the right track but it is 2 1/2 years later and he still doesn’t read at grade level, despite lots of intervention. I guess I was looking for more of a miracle cure than I got.
My son has multiple deficits and it is just going to be a long road.
Beth
Re: a proposal, and request for thoughts
i can agree with beth. my son did 2 intensive lmbell sessions and made incredible gains in all areas of his reading. however he is still at least one year behind and is struggling in math.
the hope with intensive remediation (though a miricle cure would be nice…..) is to remediate the underlying skills that are keeping the child from reading well and to ge them up to grade level. what i have found out (the hard way; i.e. the money for continued remediation has all been spent..)is that many of these kids who are severely dyslexic need more after the intensive remediation. they need support, in the methods they have learned to read, and possibly a yearly intensive after that for a few years to maintain what they have worked so hard for and keep improving.
Re: a proposal, and request for thoughts
Yes, we all need to have support and guided practice when we learn new things, and some kids need even more. The goal is to get started on the upward track; as long as the basics are there and the reading is steadily improving, you’ll get there. The huge majority of kids shut their brains down in junior high and never improve their reading again; if your kid can keep going, he will catch up.
Re: a proposal, and request for thoughts
In the back of my mind is the hope for a miracle cure, but failing that, at least a hope that he can start to make the connections with words, sounds and ultimately reading before the self esteem issues become over-whelming.
Re: a proposal, and request for thoughts
Well, get a good tutor using a sound phonics-based multi-sensory program, and get started. The sooner the better.
reading your post it sounds like a great idea i would certainly come up with some kind of contract and put things clearly in writting about cancelations, and about the deposits being nonrefundable, and maybe explain up front how much work is involved with the parents so they dont have unreasonable expectations.
i know this dosent help much but putting things in writing like that will certainly help to protect you and the parent
good luck to you!