Please help before I murder my husband...

[swedishmum]

We've just had another major row. I did a post grad dyslexia course last year, mainly to help ds. Dh now thinks I should franchise my skills and said he was very disappointed in me for not earning money out of it. My view - would not want to hand on a watered down version of teaching as it is so intuitive. Grrr - about to set out on holiday with me wanting to get divorced. Am I right - specialist teaching is not a skill you can just pass on to a nonspecialist in a few emails??

Can you do tutoring instead?

I do tutor ( a bit) but he's determined there's a fortune in there - I never got into education to make a fortune. The ethics of it comes before the money.

So could you franchise your skills? Surely anyone who took you up on it would not have a recognised qualification.

specialist teaching I agree would be hard to pass on to others....maybe general ideas & advice could be passed on - not sure about the money making aspect of it though.

So how about sessions for parents with phone or online support offered? Would you actually pay for this? Maybe after years out of the workplace I undervalue my skills. Bottom line is that I don't think people should pay to get a fair deal for their kids, even if those kids are dyslexic. I'll never get rich!!

Some people are willing ot pay though and what is wrong about making a living doing something useful? Better than making a living distributing chewing gum in former Eastern Bloc like one knob i know.

Understand your pain a bit thoguh.I'm a salt and get a lot of offers of private work.

It is all to do with self-confidence swedishmum and if you do not have it, do not let your dh push you into something that you would NOT be confident in. More to the point, would you be happy taking money from desperate people who need help with dyslexia for their children if you could not give them all the right answers. You could give them SOME of the answers but not all.

It's alright, I can understand where you are coming from. My dh would love for me to earn loads of money BUT I want to continue the way I am, happy that the bit of knowledge and work I do for others is ABSOLUTEY right and I want to give them nothing more.

I'd agree with your take on it tbh, I work in SN ed. too. I don't think any of us are in it for the money, and a good job too as on the whole the pay isn't that good.
If you wanted to branch out, can I make a suggestion - would you want to put some resource materials together? I'm thinking the sort of stuff that you would want children to do at home and would benefit them from doing regularly (mix practical fun stuff with practice of key concepts / brain training?) That way you could use it in your own work, and tweak it if necessary then look into publishing / marketing or whatever if you wish?
I also have a dyslexic son and if it hadn't been for the fact I work in SEN I would have had very limited access to materials which are useful in a 'fun' way at home without stressing DS out with the writing and reading aspects.

That's a good idea Gigglewitch - I have tons of stuff. Just needs sorting out.... Main thing would be lots of phonics games. Mmmm.

c'mon. hatch a plan. get thinking
[and if you want a partner in crime then me me me]

I've got so many qualifications there has to be some money in it... are you in the SE by any chance gw?

nope. almost as far as you can get - NW England LOL

I'll keep you in mind for my global launch then... Right, off for a week's holiday. Will sit by the pool hatching my ethically sound masterplan and report back in a week!

cool! enjoy your hols.

sorry, hijack

swedishmum, I'm trying to do some research into private care for dp's gran who has had a stroke. The NHS won't do a scan. I read in an old post that you managed to get a private one in a similar situation. Would you ind telling me how/where you arranged it?

Hi ChopsTheDuck - my sil actually organised the scan. I think she just phoned the local hosp and asked when they could it privately. Much more quickly than on the NHS. I'm afraid I can't even remember how much it was - poss £200/£300. Good luck with it.

There are a few developing websites which pay royalties for educational resources (for students) and offer freelance work writing newletters etc. Try www.teachit.co.uk which is primarily for teachers of English, drama and media studies but has growing SEN areas.

Swdishmum - someone had the idea before your dh !

these people train facilitators to tutor kids with dyslexia. I think they charge £10k for the course. It's a VERY hard sell trying to find new customers (the facilitators not the kids needing the help)

Typical! Sadly unlike Ron Davis I haven't written a book. That's a good idea fivecandles - I'll check it out. Many thanks. OK - off to laminate some stuff for my regular tutoring.

hi swedishmum, thanks for that. they did decide to do a ct at least in the end, but it is worth knowing for the future.