Would you spend a Saturday morning learning how to help your child to succeed at school?

[fisil]

As lots of you know I am about to become a SAHM - and very excited about it. But there is the small matter of pennies .... So I am trying to think of things to do that don't require childcare and that I enjoy and am good at.

I will do private tutoring and revision sessions for key stage 3 SATs and GCSE (maths and history) and maybe the odd day of supply, consultancy or teacher training.

Another idea is to run workshops on Saturday mornings (or afternoons) for parents. I would cover stuff like:
what and how your children are learning at school (especially in maths and English)
how to get your kids to do (and enjoy) homework
how to encourage your kids to talk to you about what they're doing at school
how to encourage your kids to enjoy learning

Do you think people would be interested? (would you?)
How long do you think people would want the workshop to be?
How much would you be prepared to pay?
What do you think of the topics I've listed above?
What other topics would people be interested in?
What would people want to know about me in order to have faith in what I'm offering?

Just a thought on the day - I would be more inclined to do that kind of thing whilst ds was at school rather than on a Saturday when I want to spend time with him (she says sitting at the computer whilst he watches cartoons...)

that's interesting cupcakes. Are your children primary aged? Would it be different for secondary?

I think Saturdays would be difficult with older children too. Most Saturdays are planned like a military operation to fit in everything everbody want or has to get done.

That said if there is an occasional one day event that either me or dh want to do that can be fitted in. So I suppose a one off workshops could work for us but not a course IYSWIM. My preference would be evenings.

Could you run this in conjunction with local schools? - using their buildings and getting publicity through the school - this would give you a lot of credibility.

I suspect that the people who don't know how to encourage their children to discuss the school days event with them aren't the people who will give up a Saturday morning lie in to attend a workshop nevermind pay for it.
Just my thoughts, I would expand the tutoring as there is a huge market for good tutors.

Hmm, honestly, I wouldn't. For one thing, we spend Saturday mornings doing swimming and football lessons so no time. Plus, I don't really need to know any of that stuff. I think AngelaD is right - the people that struggle with that stuff are probably people that would not attend a workshop for it iykwim.

I think you should expand the tutoring too as I think there is more demand for that

Agree saturdays would probably not be the best time. my DS is in Reception at the mo but what I could imagine being useful would be booklet type info - that parents could read as & when. Maybe a series of titles based on what you listed & what they are expected to know at various stages through school. They could be produced on a PC & then even possibly emailed to people so saving on print costs, although I suspect some would prefer a hard copy

But isn't that something you can find out from school? Not trying to be critical btw - just I can find that out from the teacher but then I'm very nosey and don't mind asking 101 questions

'things that don't require childcare' - what are your children going to be doing while you are teaching?

Fisil,
I've come across a few places that do this kind of thing already - and they make a very nice living out of it!
They're all London-based and classes are in the evening, rather than the weekend.
HTH

thank you - I knew I could rely on MN for some good honest feedback.

Yes I could do evenings - but the best venue locally is not available in the evenings. I could do it through schools, but as several of you have pointed out - correctly - the school could do it anyway. Aaaggh - this is where I wasn't cut out to be a business woman - you see I think parents would be better off going to events like this organised by schools or local authorities. In fact, I have provided this kind of thing both working for a school and a local authority. I just thought that if there was a private market I could tap into it, doing something I love while getting to be home with my boys while they're little!

Enid, very observant. The tutoring and workshops/revision schools will all take place when the children are in bed/dp is home. For the odd day of consultancy, training or supply I would use ad hoc childminders. So I'd rather stick to the out of school hours things.

oh, and juliab - do you have any more details?

Oh dear, Fisil
Been looking up that info for you and seems I've (unknowingly) led you up the garden path
One of the placecs I was thinking of was The Parent Company - but, according to its website, it only does First-Aid courses now. And the other one has completely vanished.
Maybe it's not such a goer, business-wise after all!
You could sign me up anytime, though...

Ds's school did do some courses for parents of reception children in their first term - they were over 2 days during school term and at the school (so it was easy for most as they were already at the school in the morning). I didn't go but those who did said it was helpful in showing them how to do the JollyPhonics and how to help with homework.
It was a free course though.
With regard to your question at the start of your thread ds is 5.

fisil - I used to do A level (and occasionally GCSE) revision workshops- its very good money - far better than ad hoc tutoring- have you done ad hoc 1:1 tutoring? It's a PITA.

I do some online tutoring now- have always been tempted to set up some sort of online tutoring service of my own. A lot of online tutoring service you're just epxected to do the work for them- which I refuse to do. Also thought about various parenting workshop type things. Would that interest you? If you want to have a chat about various options you can contact me on nezumi35 at googlemail dot com

local councils do often provide parent school workshops (ds1's mainstream school did) so there might not be much available there (maybe the private sector would be a potential market?)

I would definitely prefer evening/weekend for this type of thing tbh. If it is in the daytime I would either have to take time off work to go or get someone to look after 1yo DD and all my usual suspects also have kids in DS's class and younger siblings. I am the sort of uber- conscientious parent who always goes to everything though.

Hi Fisil,
I'm a bit surprised at the answers here. When I first read your original post,I thought "yes, definitely". But my kids (3 yrs and 10 months) aren't exactly old enough for me to worry about this yet.

What would I pay? Oh I suppose somewhere around £50-£100, expecting that I would share you with say 10 other parents. I think though that I would first want to know a bit more about what I was going to get out of this course. Is the knowledge you are going to give me on this day going to help my kid get into a better uni? If so, I would consider £50 or £100 a pretty good investment.

Uwila - very interesting - yes, of course I need my "success criteria"!

Thanks again for very honest and useful feedback.

Jimjams. I will email you tonight (got a joyous outing to the inlaws to deal with first!

Saturdays are difficult in our household, as are Monday evenings, but, I would definately consider something like this for both my children, even though they are doing well at school.

I try and encourage them every day to look at a book and they both come and sit and have quiet time with me whilst I am studying, when I first started studying my eldest came up and asked me what I was doing,

'what are you doing mummy'
'I'm studying'
'What's that'
'Mummy is learing something new that she likes doing'
'Why? you are too old to go to school'
'Some people like learning things new, they enjoy it'

Since that she has been quite happy, she reads at least a book every day.

I personally think something like this would be fabulous during the school holidays as they get so bored and then they get naughty.

Radley - are you thinking about a course for yourself or for your children? My MA dissertation was about how to get children keeping up their numeracy development during the summer holidays while having fun - so I could certainly run a course for parents on that.

My local adult ed college runs 2 "family learning" courses. One is teach your children reading and writing and the other is Maths. It is aimed mainly at the parents of Foundation and Key stage 1 children. I am doing the R&W one and it is v interesting. This one is free but I would pay - it runs over 5 weeks for 2 hrs (eve 7 - 9pm). Many of the mums are teachers but secondary level so the reading and writing learning techniques are unfamiliar to them and also patience seems to be a thing - we expect too much too soon and this course at least helps you to understand your child is doing OK so chill

Fisil, I'm happy to give anything a go, but definately think something like this is a good idea, more so in holidays etc when children get bored.

I personally wouldn't have done a Saturday, but you could probably do well by offering a Saturday workshop on "How to do Verbal & Non-Verbal reasoning tests", 11+ coaching etc. We didn't use a tutor but the few around here are VERY oversubscribed.